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The Herald, October 13, 1979
SALISBURY people proved themselves inventive yesterday during the power cut.
The problems started in small ways, such as having to make the morning cup of coffee on the camping stove.
Then, on arriving at work, hairdressers found their dryers out of action, and dentists (to the delight of the faint-hearted) their drills dead.
The manager of a Borrowdale supermarket was horrified at the thought of all the goods in his freezer thawing.
He was delighted when the freezers started humming again at 1pm. Cash tills operate on electricity, and some improvisation was necessary there.
Those supermarkets with machines that could be hand-operated brought them into service, but it was a long, slow process.
In butcheries, there was a freezer problem, a slicing problem, and a weighing problem: “The hazards of modernisation,” said one butcher.
An Avondale butcher said he “blew the cobwebs” off an old non-electric scale and sold meat that was already cut.
Our Bulawayo correspondent reports the cut there was a “serious but not catastrophic”, according to the city electrical engineer Mr Frank Bamber.
Worst hit were housewives in some suburbs, who went without hot breakfast and lunch, and had no hot water for most of the day.
Consumers in the city, and light to medium industry, were not affected, but some homes in the suburbs had their water heaters switched off at about 6am.
Full power was restored throughout the city by mid-afternoon, and Mr Bamber said he did not think there would be any problems over the weekend.
“Fortunately, it happened on a Friday when industrialists close down for the weekend. Otherwise, it might have been a lot more serious,” he said.
Our Midlands representative writes that the reduction of electric power did not affect the Midlands and Victoria provinces very much.
The Gwelo city electrical engineer, Mr AG Peters, said he had switched off geysers in the city at about 4am.
A spokesman for the ESC in Que Que and Redcliff, said power had been reduced a little to the larger consumers, but not drastically and they were able to keep going.
Fort Victoria, another ESC spokesman said he had been standing ready to reduce power but had not had to do so.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
- Electricity is a critical source of energy, especially in urban settings where it powers almost all facets of life. Electricity shortages have far-reaching implications in terms of a nation’s ability to grow and prosper.
- Currently, most countries, especially developing nations are facing challenges with electricity, because of the huge demand from growing populations and growth in industry and economies.
- Huge demand for electricity has seen nations coming together to work on new power projects. Zimbabwe and Zambia are among some.
- The two countries are actively pursuing the construction of the Batoka hydro-electric scheme that was conceived in 1972 out of a study instituted by its predecessor, the Zambezi River Authority.
- Electricity shortage across the world have precipitated the need to look at alternative sources of power such as gas and solar.
Online Reporter