Rolling blackouts impact the most fundamental of our needs. The first SA Blackout Report, by BrandMapp and Silverstone, reveals that as a nation, South Africans are fundamentally frightened. Our famous resilience has taken a knock. We’re frightened of the dark and the crime that comes with it. We’re scared load shedding will never end.
Our children are battling to study – the report found that “49% of respondents said they were often unable to read or study. For the latter group, the students, that number goes rocketing all the way up to 80%. Who would have ever imagined that a major threat to the educational levels in South Africa would be the failure of the national power supplier”.
The authors of the report say the mid-market (earning between R20 000 and R40 000 a month) can’t afford luxuries such as inverters, something the real ‘top-end’ can do. “… it isn’t too far a logical leap to say that if 73%of the mid- market+ population lose their internet/Wi-Fi access during load-shedding, it’s fair to say that is the total percentage of adults who have no practical power back-up solution. What they have is a drawer full of band-aids rather than any form of meaningful cure”. That 61% of us use mostly candles in a blackout says it all.
Read more: SA taxpayers speak truth to power in first SA Blackout Report
With blackouts affecting every single aspect of our lives, what has happened to media consumption? The slides below tell the story.
The full report can be downloaded here.
