Where does the Washington Times get its info? We didn’t have any blackouts (known here as load-shedding)last week. We had them for a few weeks Nov/Dec before the long school holidays started and factory holiday closures.
We are told that they will definitely be starting again from next week, possibly on a daily basis. In Cape Town we previously had a weekly schedule. My suburb was typically off on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 2:00pm to 4:30pm. My sister was supposed to be off from 6:00am to 8:00am on Saturday on Sunday, but since they only started the load-shedding at 8:00am on Sundays she was affected for only 1 day. Other times, I was at work (different suburb) when my suburb was off. At work, however, we tended to be “shed” at 2:00pm on Fridays, which meant that we knocked off early;-)
From February onwards, Cape Town is instituting a schedule based on days of the month, rather than days of the week. Much more sensible, but what you expect from the Western Cape being the only province which is not ANC controlled!
The biggest problem will be large industries and mines, etc. It seems that when the power goes down, it can take up to 24 hours to get them up and running again, by which time the power could go down again.
My Afrikaner PH said you from the Cape did not speak proper Afrikaner, what is up with that?