RIP South Africa

Our newspapers and all other media are overloaded with articles such as this one.
The country has been managed into bankruptcy by one of the most corrupt, dysfunctional
and dishonest regime on the continent.

All state institutions are in disarray, Post Office on strike for months, South African
Airways bankrupt, again, Escom, our monopolistic electricity provider not only bankrupt
but has managed to reduce its generation fleet to scrap because of lack of maintenance. Daily black-outs are the norm. As I am typing this I hear my neighbors generator starting up.
Lo and Behold an other round of load-shedding. And that on a Saturday morning when demand
is light because heavy industry and most businesses have shut for the weekend.

Luckily it does not affect me at all. I installed a 6kWp Solar PV System over 3 years ago
because we had a similar but not as severe crisis then. So being a forward looking chap
I realized then that is going to be our future because electricity is totally beyond
the level of understanding of our collective leadership.

I had a quick look at the performance log of my Solar System. Manufactured by MLT Drives
in Cape Town. Started in the early 1980's by a chap from Belgium. Today the leading
Solar Co in the country. Doing all their own engineering and design.
In the period form 1. Jan. 2105 to 4.Feb 2015 we generated 909 kWh of usable, that is 230VAC
power. That excludes the energy to keep the 48V/1660Ah Battery fully charged as well as the
losses in the 2 MPPT's and the inverter. I estimate that the conversion efficiency is 80%
So that computes to a total energy harvest of 1.1 Mega Watt Hours.
That despite January beig usually a wet month. We had only a few poor days thanks to the fact
that is rains in Johannesburg during the high summer usually after 4pm. By then we already
collected all the sunshine and so very little is lost.

The effect of that lack of energy has massive implications.
Billions of Rands lost due to businesses shutting down,and reducing our GDP by 1.5%.
And then the President blamed the Settlers who arrived in 1652 for the crisis. No Joke.
Look it up on Google.
Laying off staff, daily traffic chaos as traffic lights not working, Police Force corrupt,
unreliable and very often involved in major crimes. Anyone can hire a Police Uniform,
guns, including assault rifles from off duty cops. These are then used to commit violent
armed robberies and are then returned to the corrupt cop before he goes back on duty.
Just last week 30 of them attacked a bank inside a large Mall in JHB attempting to rob it.
Many shoppers were shot in the crossfire.
In the news this very minute. The Gardens Shopping Center in Cape Town attacked by 4 armed
criminals who escaped by car jacking a shopper in the parking lot.

Large Mobs attacking dozens of shops run by foreign nationals were attacked and looted.
Police either standing by and watching or taking part in the looting themselves.
Millions of desperate Africans from all over Africa are in the country, many illegally as
their own countries are a shambles, run into the ground by their 'leaders'.
Zimbabwe comes to mind. Once the breadbasket of Africa, today the remaining population
has taken to eating insects to stay alive. Millions of Zimbabweans are in South Africa
as refugees.

As millions of African Refugees flocked south to South Africa during the past 100 years, looking for
a better life I would like to point out that there is no other landmass south of Cape Town.
I do not think Antarctica would be a preferred destination.
So it would be in the best interest of everybody not to fuck up South Africa completely as there
is just nothing further south waiting with open arms.