Being a glass-half-full person can be challenging when you live in my homeland. But every now and then we are provided a reminder that employing hope as a strategy is not as foolish as cynics would have us believe. Because we are not alone. There are many others hard at work, sacrificing much in the belief that they can make a difference.
Like James Martin, buddy of Kasinomics author GG Alcock, who runs Economic Recovery for the uMgungunglovu district (PMB, Howick, Mooi River etc). We last engaged during the KZN Riots in July 2021 when my sleep deprived interviewee explained how intervention by taxi owners turned back a destructive wave that threatened to engulf KZN.
___STEADY_PAYWALL___My chat with him yesterday was equally uplifting. Martin told me his agency has facilitated the creation of massive battery plants, powered by IPPs, which within a year will be supplying electricity to business hubs during blackouts. Let that sink in. By December 2023, businesses in the major KZN Midlands hubs will be served by a collective solution delivered by a State agency. S’trues Bob.
Red tape coupled with political ideology would have made it impossible just months ago. But today even the most propagandized idealogue cannot argue against the socio-economic threat of loadshedding-stimulating unemployment. Especially in a region where memories of last year’s Riots are fresh, with reminders of their consequences all around.
The wise ones tell us to never waste a good crisis. James Martin hasn’t. And, in the process, has created a template that can now be applied elsewhere in South Africa. It opens up the potential for widespread adoption of a home-grown solution to the existential crisis that electricity supply has become. Hope springs.
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