Power to the make-a-planners

There’s so much going on around us right now, but what dominates our dinner table chitchat? Solar. We’re all focused on keeping the lights on in any and every way we can find.

As I’ve said before, I view us as the “make-a-plan” nation, and right now we are so focused on figuring out whether we should rent, buy, or rent-to-buy solar. If that isn’t an option, what inverter works best, and how on earth to maintain lead-acid batteries without having to replace them with the expensive lithium batteries.

Though I really want to talk about the Rabbitt Reloaded concert that was going to happen but isn’t, and what it was like to meet three of the original members of the band 45 years after having been a Rabbitt fan, everyone wants to talk about solar.

I would have been irritated with this, but the truth is, I also need to hear what they’re saying because I’m trying to figure out my own power plans. And, as it happens, so is everyone else. That is, other than those who have already taken the leap and want to be able to convince you – and themselves – that they made the right choice.

It isn’t an easy decision, and in some cases, it’s a huge investment in the unknown. What if in a year’s time, the government gets its act together and we have power 24-7? Okay, I had to throw that in to be positive, but I can hear everyone looking at me as if to say, “Don’t be ridiculous!”

What I love about our people is that we have a limit to the frustration we experience before we make that plan. And once we have asked all the questions and done the research, we jump and don’t look back.

I have to chuckle every time I see my neighbour, who recently took the leap and installed solar, peering outside his house when there is loadshedding with a big smile on his face. He’s checking out who hasn’t yet got solar and is still in the dark. “Are you still on the grid?” he asks, smiling with what looks like an air of sympathy on his face. I’m sure he is thinking one of two things: When is she going to realise that she has no choice? Or, foolish woman, how much clearer does the government need to make it?

Either way, he’s not looking at me for advice or help.

Frankly, it’s just a matter of time before the next hot topic occupies our minds and hits our dinner tables – fresh drinking water.

As we speak, we have a cholera outbreak in Gauteng and the Free State and, at the time of going to print, 24 people had already died from this preventable waterborne disease.

This killer disease is mostly found in areas where there is inadequate access to clean water and sanitation facilities.

Apparently, in Hammanskraal, the worst-hit cholera area, poor-quality drinking water has been a problem for years. The area’s wastewater treatment works apparently haven’t been maintained and don’t have the capacity to deal with the volume of wastewater entering the system. It was a disaster waiting to happen, and now it’s happening. Isn’t it astounding that it was inevitable but nothing was done about it?

What’s shocking for me is that Israel has an immediate solution to offer. (See page 1.) South Africa just has to say the word, and this problem can be solved. Israel has the expertise to make this problem go away, but the Jewish state cannot – for obvious reasons – force it on South Africa. Besides, why would it? It’s not Israel’s problem, it’s ours.

I find it so frustrating to watch as people are allowed to die from something that is preventable but isn’t prevented because of sheer pigheadedness and political game playing.

Lives are way more precious than politics and people stuck in anti-Israel bias and prejudice.

While people are dying, Israel is offering its help. How does one justify not accepting help in such instances? How does the minister of international relations and cooperation (and whichever other ministers are concerned with this) sleep at night when she’s so determined to keep gouging Israel’s eyes out on the international stage, she won’t accept help for her own country? I cannot understand it.

When a government turns down help to save lives, there can be no justification. It has those lives lost on its hands. It must carry that guilt.

I know that ultimately we will all be looking at ways to ensure that we have water to drink and stay clean, but not everyone in the country is going to be able to do this. Those being sacrificed because of pigheadedness wouldn’t worry about who, or which country enabled them to have clean running water, merely that they have such water.

They don’t care about politics, and neither would any one of us if it was someone in our family who was sick from contaminated water.

But members of the government aren’t drinking that disease-ridden water, nor are their families. In the news, the government is said to be looking for solutions to this problem. Perhaps it is, but it simply won’t consider the solution being offered on a platter from Israel.

Israel helps so many other African countries with water issues. It has had such success up north, but here in South Africa, its help isn’t welcome because of some warped ideas that people have about the Jewish state.

The South African government would rather damn Israel – which really doesn’t care what this country thinks – and cosy up to countries with horrific human rights records who couldn’t help it if it asked. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. So sad!

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor