You can blame the municipality for the power cuts, but not for the gas shortage – which is the next problem facing Festival season.
This week many catering and accommodation establishments, well prepared after years of experience, simply switched on the gas during the power cuts that put several shows on hold and had people running around looking for candles and gas lamps.
You can blame the municipality for the power cuts, but not for the gas shortage – which is the next problem facing Festival season.
This week many catering and accommodation establishments, well prepared after years of experience, simply switched on the gas during the power cuts that put several shows on hold and had people running around looking for candles and gas lamps.
Even in the darkest corner of the top floor of the otherwise pitch-dark Albany Museum on Tuesday, past the giant horseshoe crab and stuffed mammals, the gas lantern that Zimbabwean artist Mathias Chirombo had found to illuminate his Sacred Spaces exhibition served to enhance the evocative lines and deep colours of his paintings.
And it was hard to believe that the array of candles Bretten-Anne Moolman had lit to guide people into the museum's side entrance weren't integral to her intriguing States of Being collection of oil and acrylic canvases.
But now even the gas supplies are running out. “We’re bleeding our suppliers dry," Jonathan Voorvelt, of D&A Timbers on Bathurst Street told Grocott's Mail on Wednesday. "They’ve promised delivery this week, but waiting for them to deliver is costing us R20 000 a day.” The increase in demand happened every winter, Voorvelt said, and always spiked during the National Arts Festival.
The fact that the suppliers couldn't meet the demand showed they were unable to manage their business, Voorvelt said. The world may seem to end with Festival, but the problem is in fact nationwide as South Africa's biggest liquid-gas supplier, Afrox, struggles to meet the country’s gas needs.
According to a statement put out by the company, there are three reasons for the dearth of gas: “The unprecedented demand experienced as a result of inconsistent electricity supply; the malfunctioning of one of the refineries; and the fact that another refinery is operating below normal capacity”.
Daniel Levings, of Grahamstown Electrical Distributors, however, claims they have not been affected by the gas shortage. While the Port Elizabeth tanks of their supplier, Easigas, were currently empty, he said they were having no problem meeting the demand at the moment. “Everything should be sorted out in about a week provided the petroleum companies get involved,” said Levings.
