A Summerstrand private student accommodation provider housing 13 students from across Africa said the ongoing electricity crisis has severely disrupted daily life, with students struggling to charge devices and study during their current test week.
Charis Beukes said before the rotational schedule started this week, she was forced to take all the students’ meat to a relative’s home with power to prevent it from spoiling.
“It was a whole boot load of meat. Thank goodness my brother had a freezer in his garage we could use.
“He is lucky that his home is completely off the grid and not reliant on municipal electricity.
“Other students in Summerstrand have had to toss so much food away, so I’m glad we could help our students at least.”
She said they were also lucky to have gas stoves for cooking, as she had noticed an increase in Uber Eats drivers in the area.
“Part of our service for the students is to do their laundry.
“I have to figure out the schedule and when there is power, I try get as much laundry done as possible.
“On Monday, I had to do five students’ laundry.
“I even set an alarm for 10pm [when the electricity was scheduled to come on] to get up and switch the washing machines on.”
She said making matters worse for the students was that they were writing tests.
“The students I have here are from Zambia, Zimbabwe, Limpopo and Mpumalanga. They take their studies very seriously.
“They are forced to study in the library on campus, so they work there until late and charge all their devices before coming home.”
Beukes said walking home late at night was not safe.
“My students have mobile panic buttons that can be activated from 100m from the house, so if something happens nearby, they can alert the security company.”
Beukes said having to live in darkness for the proposed next two weeks would be challenging — though she was grateful for the daily two-hour slots they got to have electricity.
“Luckily the freezers and the fridges get some electricity during that time, so we can at least keep some perishables, but we can’t stock up.
“We just have to survive like this for now.”
Fourth-year engineering student Enock Masocha, a resident at Beukes’s property, said he was worried about the impact of the electricity crisis on his test results.
“It is really hard to prepare, because the schedule keeps changing, and we have tests and assignments to do.
“I am studying engineering so most of my work is reliant on electricity.
“It is a very demanding course. I end up having to go to the campus library to study every night which takes a lot of effort and time.
“I then also need to eat on campus, which is becoming expensive.
“When there’s no power, it’s very dark, so walking home is dangerous. Everyone now walks in groups.
“It is really hard to balance everything. This has definitely had an impact on my results because I don’t have as much time as usual to prepare.
“At the beginning of the semester, you plan out everything and you create timetables, but now that’s all out the window.
“I have important projects to complete and everything is online.”
He said he felt demoralised.
“I came all the way from Zambia to study here. Now, in my final year, I’m facing this issue.”
Second-year human movement science student Taslin Bentley said her tests were postponed due to the outage.
“It has been really difficult, this is the second power outage in two weeks.
“I have had to work in the library on campus to complete my tasks and charge my devices.”
She said they worked at the library until closing time at 10pm. If they still had work to do, they moved to a classroom.
Bentley said as a young woman it was unsafe to use e-hailing services at such late hours, so she and two other friends travelled together.
Bentley said she was not concerned that the power outage would affect her marks, but felt her productivity had been heavily affected.
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