Today is a holiday here in South Africa. Freedom Day commemorates the first democratic elections held back in 1994.

Lots to unpack there, but right now I’m focused on the conspicuous absence of “loadshedding,” the rolling power outages that are supposedly propping up SA’s failing - failed - energy grid. Nearly every single day since July 2022, state-owned electricity utility Eskom has turned the power off for between 2.5 and 8 hours per day.

The government has instituted these rolling power outages for well over a decade, but 2022 was the worst year yet, and 2023 is on track to top it. Having lived here a mere four and a half years, even I can recall the halcyon days when loadshedding would happen in short waves. Bad for a week or ten days, and then back to our regularly scheduled access to power.

No more.

The drama swirling around Eskom has reached heights of which Kafka would be proud. Former CEO Andre de Ruyter publicly denounced cartels that have infiltrated and looted the power utility, but the neglect and theft was well-known, decades in the making and will not be undone anytime soon - if at all. When he was poisoned with cyanide in December, I can’t say I know anyone here who reacted with more than a shake of the head, a shrug of the shoulders. It was shocking, but certainly not surprising.

In the meantime, the gap between rich and poor widens in this, the most unequal country in the world. Those who can afford to are - understandably - installing solar panels while the majority of the country remains strapped to a failed grid clinging tightly to coal. Bear in mind power outages are not just inconvenient - unless you have gas you can’t cook, food stored in your fridge or freezer spoils, businesses struggle to remain open - it’s dangerous. Crime spikes when there are hours of guaranteed pitch dark, especially in tightly-packed townships.

And yet - that’s not even what I’m writing about today.

What’s really got me riled is the bread and circus effect of public holidays as the rare exception to loadshedding. (Well that, and the weekend Cape Town hosted the Formula E electric car race - the eyerolling irony of which cannot be overstated.)

This tactic is offensive in its obviousness. Instead of actually fulfilling its obligations to citizens, the government offers palliative “breaks” in its normally planned failure to provide basic public services. Just like the Romans pacifying people with food and entertainment, all the while shifting power away from representative democracy to an authoritarian Empire.

And just when I think it can’t get any more dystopian, I hear on the news that the first day of the long-awaited trial of two tavern owners implicated in the deaths last year of 21 young people was cut short - by planned power outages.

And I quote, “machines recording evidence needed to be switched off at least 30 minutes before the power cuts to avoid loss of recordings..the trial [was postponed] to 23 May. There were no earlier dates the defence [sic] and State could agree on due to their busy work schedules."

You can’t make this shit up.

Justice in the deaths of 21 children postponed. By loadshedding.

But not today. Oh no.

Today we can heat water and prepare food and fend off the dark as long as we like!

Because today is Freedom Day.