Load Shedding and its Possible Impact on South Africa’s Upcoming Elections

This April, it will be 30 years of democracy in South Africa, marking the first time democratic elections in the country, where citizens of all races went to the polls to vote for a new government. This year, South Africa will go to the polls again, with the date set at May 29 by President Cyril Ramaphosa, for the General National and Provincial elections.

The announcement comes amidst growing unrest among the voting population. Sitting alongside pressing structural concerns is the very real, day-to-day ways in which the country is failing its citizens. Chief among these is the ongoing, malevolent corruption that has crippled entities like Eskom, which supplies electricity and owns the country’s grid. The effects on both small and medium-sized businesses, as well as citizens, have been devastating.

Ongoing power blackouts, colloquially referred to as load shedding, have led to direct economic losses and job cuts, which in turn have impacted safety and security countrywide. To get a better grasp of the situation, OkayAfrica speaks to people operating in different creative professions in the country about how the endless power cuts have impacted them, and whether that has influenced their attitudes going into the elections.

Have You Registered?

“Definitely,” comes the assured response from author, photographer and filmmaker Lidudumalingani Mqombothi. “I always vote. I just always see my own contributions as a statement of some sorts. So I’m always voting to say [that] this is what I believe in, or this is what I don’t believe in.”

Mqombothi has recently undertaken a long-term portrait-making photography project that in part seeks to understand the attitudes of young people towards the electoral process. “I’ve kind of picked up, on social media and casual conversations, that people are interested in voting. And I think part of the reason is that it certainly feels like things have gone to shit quite quickly within the four years of the [last] general elections. Even people who were passive in the other elections are now starting to think, ‘you know what, maybe we should say something by voting.’ But again, it sometimes feels like that and you go to the voting centers, and people aren’t there,” he says.

Eskom’s Load Shedding

Mqombothi also works in television and collaborates closely with production companies on the work he commissions. He says that the blackouts have affected big production companies by forcing them to invest heavily in off-grid backup power systems. He highlights smaller companies’ struggles as well, stating: “[They] don’t have the money to have the backup systems. And that really messes things up because if load shedding happens for two hours or four hours, the repercussions are immense. It can completely turn an R800,000 ($4,200) movie into a R2,000,000 ($104,000) movie, because you’ve lost all this money.”

Sakumzi Qumana owns an independent design agency that he started in 2018, and he’s been directly impacted by Eskom’s unreliable schedules that can tend to change overnight and worsen throughout the day.

“I’m not looking for grants, I’m not looking for government assistance, I’m not looking for funding, neh? I’m focused on building my own small business. I’m doing it my way, I’ve got my niche products, I’ve got my own satisfied clients. I’m not waiting on anyone,” he says.

“Yesterday, I woke up, load shedding was finished, but I had no power, and I had a deadline. I woke up today, I still have no electricity. So what that means is, I have to find a way to – which you’d have to pay for from your own pocket – get a place where I can use power and the internet. Now you have to use extra time and extra petrol to go somewhere to do this work.”

Why Am I Voting?

Qumana underscores the divide that exists between old people residing in rural areas and the younger, urban and peri-urban voting population.

“Someone was saying ‘well, these people currently have grants, and they might have [access to free] housing, something they didn’t have in the Apartheid days. So they are voting for their benefits, which is fair.’ You can’t fault them on that; our fight is not their fight. They’ve got the right to feel that way,” he points out. “It’s on us now, the people that feel different, to vote them out.”

People under 29 already account for 77 percent of new voter registrations between November 2023, and February 2024.

Conversely, theatermaker and vocalist Pulane Mafatshe says that deciding on who to vote for is a tough one because she’s not inspired by the political discourse at the moment.

“The condition of living while black doesn’t inspire one to run to the polls, which for me is very confusing because [voting] is all I was brought up and taught to be. I’m just like ‘eish, this exercise, what is it for?’,” she wonders. “I’m functioning from a place of extreme bad faith.”

A Holistic View

Author and curator Bongani Madondo offers a holistic view that takes into account global trends. He notes that the real culprit in all of this mess is Capitalism, but notes the distinguishing factor, at least in as far as South Africa is concerned.

“The issue of what we say is corruption has been politicized and racialized. To point a finger at Black people as people who cannot rule, who cannot govern, who are not civilized, who are corrupt drunkards, always dancing, and who cannot do any work that is seen as upholding the nation. But we’ve always been seen as that from the days of Jan Smuts, but even before him. When White big business and White foreign states bribe the [ruling] ANC, no one raises a point. By so saying, I am not in any way condoning corruption, I’m giving context.”

Whatever one’s political affiliation, it remains clear that people are frustrated, and that a change in leadership is necessary. Whether that shall translate into votes can only be determined by who turns up at the polls come May 29.