Load-shedding has been with us for about 14 years, and it seems it will be our lot for some time to come. The excuses for the continual lights out has come by the truckloads over the years, from former public enterprises minister Alec Erwin's infamous loose bolt at the Koeberg nuclear power station, former president Thabo Mbeki's apology for not heeding warnings about boosting generation to the looting of the Jacob Zuma years.

By and large South Africans and those living within this country's borders have heard it all and wouldn't care what is keeping us in the dark, literally. The cry instead is: put the lights on and keep them on, dammit!..