In the dark!

After a short reprieve, Eskom – and South Africa – offers lack of energy, again. 

In my area, we fluctuate between Stages 3 and 4 – that is, no electricity from 2am to 4am, then 10am to 12:30pm, and 6pm to 10:30pm. (Can’t figure out the difference between these schedules. I guess it’s an Eskom thing.)
Back in 2019, President Ramaphosa said Eskom would be “unbundled” into three separate firms responsible for three different business areas: generation, distribution, and transmission. Alas, this process of unbundling process will “take until 2022”. 

Don’t hold your breath. In the meantime, 

Eskom has failed to meet some of the conditions attached to the R59billion it received from the government last year to service its debt through the special appropriation bill.

Hmmm, well, I guess Eskom knows what it is doing. NOT. Moreover, we’re heading towards summer. Who needs electrical light when we have universal light?

News blues…

With 193 police officers dead from Covid-19, South African has its first police hospital: 160 beds for personnel struck with coronavirus and based at the Tshwane SAPS Academy.

While the new hospital fits into the force's long-term plans for its members, its first duty will be to assist officers who have been exposed to the coronavirus.
Deputy police minister Cassel Mathale said, “We have been compelled to respond decisively and innovatively to curb the rapid spread of this pandemic and to ensure that we protect our front-line workers … to continue to deliver much-needed services to our citizens. What we are witnessing today is a step in the right direction.”

Healthy futures, anyone?

First, the bad news. Back in May, more than 350 elephants mysteriously died in northern Botswana’s Okavango Delta – a mass die-off clustered around waterholes. Scientists, nonplussed as to why, described the event as a “conservation disaster”.

Three months later, most surviving elephants have fled. Last week a plane flew over the Okavango Panhandle, an area in the north-west of the delta where most of the deaths occurred, and eight elephants were spotted, when normally you would see hundreds. Dr Niall McCann, director of conservation at UK-based charity National Park Rescue said, “It is understandable, I’m sure you or I would flee if all our friends and relatives were dying, and that’s what the elephants appear to have done.”
Elephants are now reported to have started dying in a similar way in neighbouring Zimbabwe. At the time of writing, 22 have died, with numbers expected to rise. Dr Roy Bengis, retired chief state veterinarian of the Kruger national park, says …it is unclear if there is a link between the two incidents. 
There have been many competing theories about the cause of the deaths in Botswana. Human-elephant conflicts are common in the Okavango delta, an agricultural area home to 15,000 elephants and 16,000 people but poisoning or poaching are unlikely to be to blame. Cyanide was ruled out because no scavengers died and tusks were left intact … Pesticides and anthrax were tested for and also ruled out.

Now the good news:

The population of ibex recently introduced to the French Pyrenees is thriving more than a century after the native species was wiped out in France. 

Officials have counted 70 newborn ibex this year at the Pyrenees national park and nearby Ariege regional park in the craggy mountains that separate France and Spain.
The French population now stands at some 400 animals, though they are not the original Pyrenean Ibex, the last two of which in France were shot and killed in 1910.
The new animals are western Spanish ibex, another subspecies of the Iberian ibex that began to be brought over from a Spanish reserve in 2014.
Recognisable by their long, curving horns, the ibex is a wild goat can easily scamper up cliffs in search of grass, leaves and moss.
“In relation to the initial goal of establishing a viable core population, for now we can say the operation has been a success,” Jerome Lafitte, head of fauna operations at the Pyrenees park, told Agence France-Presse. Matthieu Cruege, director of the Ariege park, said: “These are majestic animals, and it really is exciting when you’re able to see them.”

Daily Maverick webinar: Economic State of Play: South Africa’s Debt Tale of Woe.  Hosted by Sasha Planting with Nazmeera Moola and Mamokete Lijane 

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Political ads: enjoy ‘em while you can. That vigilant guardian of democracy, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says, “This election is not going to be business as usual. We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy. That means helping people register and vote, clearing up confusion about how this election will work, and taking steps to reduce the chances of violence and unrest.”
[Sarcasm alert] Gosh, thank you, Mark Zuckerberg. With you reducing the chances of violence and unrest. I feel so much safer.
Meidas Touch: Had Enough Trump?  (0:52 mins) (And, oh, yes, I've had more than enough Trump, thank you very much!)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’m working with and around Lockdown Level 2 to ensure a relatively calm move for my mother on September 16.

I’ve reserved a mover. I’m scrounging boxes from local stores and used 5 of them to carry donations of ceramic ornaments to the local SPCA. more ceramic ornaments to go. I’ve run Blue Book-like valuations on my mother’s Toyota for sale. Today, I’ll pick up boxes and I’ll drive 2 rifles and one Beretta pistol – and licenses – to the local gun shop to sell on consignment.
I’m also looking at properties for sale in the around – just in case, a “chip off the old block,” I decide to change my mind about fleeing this country and, instead, decide to remain. That is, not remain remain but live part of each year here and there, California. Hey, changing my mind willy nilly is part of my DNA: like mother, like daughter.
[Sarcasm alert]. Why not sign up for semi-darkness generously served up by Eskom?