WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-02-03 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
I’m sure many South Africans remember the panic of 1994 when there was talk of a Race war when the ANC came to power.
Then there were lots of people who bought extra food and who prepared for power outages, etc. I was one of them. But then again, I’m always in that state of mind. I always like to keep extra stocks of food and needed items. You never know when shortages can hit, like last year when we were without petrol for a WEEK – something unknown in South Africa.
But in 1994, there were some who said it was stupid to make preparations. They were proven right.
But later when the facts came out, we had indeed been closer to war than people knew. General Constand Viljoen averted it.
Anyhow… I used my little gas stove for odd power outages and it was useful. At times I was the only person in my whole apartment complex who could boil some water or cook something when we had the odd power failure.
However, the panic of 1994 was nothing like the panic of 2008.
In 2007 we were shown that we could be without PETROL. I hope that people have learned something for that. For almost a week there was no fuel in Johannesburg and people were running around looking for petrol stations that still had fuel.
But with the power outages of January 2008 and the news of the shocking state of our national power grid (which some of us have been watching decline for years now), panic has really hit people in a way I’ve never seen in the 25(43)+ years that I’ve lived here.
Most generators have been sold out. People are buying small and large generators like crazy.
Gas? There’s no gas. Well, you can get gas refilled, but you must first find a place to buy a proper gas bottle. I saw MICA hardware in Cresta yesterday still had some gas bottles and even 2 generators, but I’m sure they will be sold out on short order.
A friend of mine told me that one Chinese importer he knows sold 18,000 generators in the last few months! That is unprecedented for South Africa.
I’m seeing lanterns appearing on shop shelves and people buying rechargable lanterns.
Every shop owner I talk to says: “This will be our new way of life from now on. Don’t expect any of these power problems to be solved in the next few years. This new trend could be the way things are for the rest of our lives”. NOBODY expects the problem to be fixed even though our Govt has estimated the problem will be solvedin 5-8 years.
Now our Govt, who are themselves the real cause for the power problems, are about to punish us all for THEM not doing their job!!
Among the things they’ve discussed:-
o Banning all incandescent light bulbs
o Introducing power rationing
o Forcing you to reduce your electricity usage by 10% or be fined
o They will put up electricity prices by 14.5% – but even the Governor of the Reserve Bank says the reality may be higher. (Could our electricity costs go up by 20%?) We’ll have to see.
o Send inspectors to your home to check how you use electricity!
o The Mines have been shut down for days, and tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people may lose their jobs because of these forced closures.
But on the investment front its just as bleak.
Adriana posted a news article from Rapport newspaper wherein it is stated that R12.5 billion worth of investment has fled South Africa in the last year. In December R5.8 billion worth of bonds were sold by foreign investors.
I have an additional story to tell that I read in a financial report some days ago. The Govt wanted to issue new bonds while redeeming old bonds. The idea was to roll the debt forward to 2030.
When the Govt issued the new bonds THERE WERE NO BUYERS AT ALL!
Nobody wanted the new Govt bonds!
But some companies warned of this. We’ve been talking about investors fleeing this country. In December communist Jacob Zuma was elected as the President of the ANC, and he’ll probably be the future President of S.Africa. I suspect that Zuma’s election and Zuma’s rise is the reason for last years mass sell-off of investments here.
But wait… recently, in 2008, R8 billion fled from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange when the Eskom power problems hit this country.
The Rand has also resumed its downward fall which had halted back in 2000. For the last 8 years we’ve experienced a reversal in the Rand’s fall. In 2000 the Rand hit R13 to the US Dollar. This year, Rand Merchant Bank Predicted a fall down to as far as R9 to a US Dollar – and that was BEFORE the Eskom problems started.
When will we see R20 or R30 to the US Dollar? In our lifetimes I’m sure. Mayber we’ll see even worse.
Inflation is also finally out of control. It is reaching 9%… and I can’t see it being curbed in any way.
Finally, after 14 years, foreigners are realising that South Africa is unsalvageable… and they’re just fleeing. They know by now that any statements by this Government are completely worthless.
I think the Transvaal Agricultural Union summarised it the best when they stated that these Eskom power problems will be the African National Congresses “Waterloo”. For sure. Whatever minor optimism might have been entertained by anyone local or foreign has now just flown out the window.
South Africa will be heading firmly down the path of Zimbabwe.