Cape Town - South Africans have this week been hit with a double dose of good news for a change, something that has been few and far between for several months.
While fuel prices remain stubbornly high in historical terms, motorists are paying less for petrol and diesel from Wednesday morning.
Were it not for the significantly weaker rand, which depreciated to an average of R18.98 from R18.13 the previous month, there could have been larger decreases for petrol and diesel.
But still, it is better than nothing, especially after the prices had been on an upward trend for a while.
And after Eskom lowered the load shedding stages at the weekend, the power utility Tuesday suspended the rolling blackouts due to lower demand and improved available generation capacity. Stage 3 load shedding was only implemented from 4pm.
It is a remarkable improvement for a nation that has seen weeks of the intense stages of load shedding, with Stage 8 reportedly still looming deeper into the colder winter season.
Smaller victories such as these are worth celebrating, especially with many critics ready to write off South Africa as a “failed state” due to load shedding and generally the constantly rising cost of living.
According to Eskom, the suspension of load shedding was because South Africans heeded the call to use electricity sparingly and efficiently.
This included switching off geysers from 5pm and 9am to alleviate the pressure on the power system and contributing to lower stages of load shedding.
Last week, Electricity Minister Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa appealed to people with uninterruptible power supply devices to only recharge these during off-peak times. These efforts are seemingly bearing fruit.
May this be the beginning of good things to come; that the price of petrol and diesel will continue to drop and load shedding remains at lower levels and is ultimately removed from the country’s agenda.
Cape Times