S.Africa: My Experiences: People buying Batteries and Gas Cylinders like crazy due to Rolling Electrical Blackouts

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In recent days I needed to do some shopping relating to electrical outages.

I had to replace a faulty battery in my battery bank. So I decided to purchase 2 new batteries. I buy them from Whites who have a business from home. When I went to collect my 2 batteries, another White man arrived and he was picking up 6 deep cycle batteries! I asked the Whites who run the business, how business is going and they said they are inundated with business due to the load shedding (rolling Blackouts). They also sell solar panels and many other things related to solar power and battery banks. So I was pleased for them.

Then I decided to get myself a little 2 plate gas hotplate from a family member who is leaving the country. My family member has been using gas for years and swears by it. He says it is far cheaper than electricity. Not many people in South Africa use gas. We’ve been spoiled by electricity. However, that is changing. So I went and picked up the hotplate but then I needed a gas bottle. So today I went shopping for a gas cylinder and boy did that turn out to be a mission.

Firstly, you can’t find decent sized gas cylinders because they’ve all been SOLD! Then I got to a big shop that did have a range of gas cylinders, but then I discovered with horror, all the complex rules around which gas bottles can be exchanged and which need to be refilled and which ones they sell but they don’t refill! Eventually I worked out a plan and bought a bottle which I had them refill immediately.

When I was in the shop I was talking to one of the Blacks in the gas section and he was telling me that people are buying gas cylinders like crazy. Looking at the stock he told me that by next week there would be nothing left.

All of this is good news because it means people, mostly Whites, are reducing their dependency on the Government generated Electrical power system. This is excellent really. Plus, there are quite a lot of Whites in the "alternative energy" industry with their small businesses, and they must be making a LOT of money. This is wonderful. Their businesses are growing!

It’s all excellent. We are moving in the right direction as the Blacks become more and more INEFFICIENT and generating electricity!!!!

jlamprecht