Prince of Darkness: Eskom worker shares ‘dark arts’ video [watch]

For those of you who assumed that all blackouts are automated, think again. For some inexplicable reason, an Eskom employee felt the need to share a video on TikTok of how he switches off the electricity for load shedding. And the last time we checked, his show-and-tell video has already racked up 3.6 million views and 123 000 likes.

In the viral video, the worker steps into the spotlight with the admission that he is one of those responsible for switching on our current Stage 5 load shedding. Without the required protective gear for such a high-voltage job…

ALSO READ: City of Cape Town confirms load shedding plan for the week: Not pretty!

Eskom worker shows Mzansi how it is done

According to IOL, TikTokker @mandisidyantyi is a power plant worker at an undisclosed location in North West, Rustenburg. Without further ado, let’s take a look at his video clip of how power cuts are initiated.

@mandisidyantyi

Load Shedding stage 4 operating 11000 volts without an arc flash suit, this is asking for trouble. It has become a norm to commit unsafe acts in the work place. #Rustenburg Municipality

♬ original sound – Deeza

The real shocker here is that the worker has to manage 11 000 volts of electricity without the proper protective gear to do his job.

South Africa’s dark fate of load shedding

Eskom is currently implementing Stage 5 load shedding until further notice. The national power supplier failed to make good on its promise to downgrade the rolling blackouts to Stage 2 on Sunday 9 December, citing an unusually high demand for electricity. 

South Africans have basically given up on the hope of “light at the end of the tunnel” when it comes to the bane of load shedding.

At the end of November, My Broadband reported on shock data published by EskomSePush, the popular app which monitors Eskom’s load shedding status.

The report was based on a tweet by EskomSePush, showing that Eskom had implemented 2 881 hours of load-shedding in 2022 by 17:29 on Monday 21 November.

It's finally time. You have to tell your friends and family to download the app – you can't keep telling them when they'll have loadshedding 🤯 https://t.co/GnyUroAjWg pic.twitter.com/Cx3VJIV7Lw

— EskomSePush (ESP) (@EskomSePush) November 21, 2022

According to My Broadband, that equals 120 days of load-shedding, which works out to about four months of continuous rotational power outages, in 2022.

Last year, the country had to endure “only” 1 153 hours of load shedding, equal to about 48 days.

Here’s to a bright 2023…NOT.