ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY WILL COLLAPSE - STANLEY

MBABANE – These words came from Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC) CEO Stanley Dlamini during an interview about the proposed load-shedding.

According to the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) website, load-shedding is a deliberate and temporary interruption of electricity supply to avoid a countrywide blackout due to high demand. It is normally implemented in all parts of the country at different times as a control option and to avoid unplanned power cuts. EEC prepares a monthly schedule that serves as a guide to managing load reduction. While the schedule shows daily load reduction plans for the morning, afternoon, and evening hours, electricity usage usually peaks in the evening and early morning hours. The schedule is a tentative plan of how the load will be reduced should the need arise at any time of the day.Arts and Culture CEO Stanley Dlamini shared with this publication that the load- shedding will affect all industries, but the entertainment industry is likely to collapse.

collapse

“When you talk about electricity, it’s more like speaking about having blood in your veins. If there is no blood in your veins, you will collapse, so I am saying the entertainment sector will collapse. The load-shedding issue is not well addressed; I would fancy a situation where the country would already be debating this issue. I want to believe that load-shedding is controlled; during the discussions, it would be wise to talk about zoning this country,” Dlamini said. He went on to share that the debate is important because the event’s organisers will also be given a chance to have a say pertaining to the load-shedding.“I can imagine those people who host festivals as well as events; these people are likely to have their shows stopped because of load-shedding. The Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Economic Planning should engage these event organisers as well as plan on zoning the country. We are a small country to be having adverse effects from it; if we were to zone this country the right way, we would be able to control the load-shedding,” Dlamini said.

He further said that event organisers need to invest in generators to use when hosting shows. “Event organisers need to think ahead and think about generators as well as alternative lighting systems to ensure that festivals and events are not interrupted by load-shedding. EEC should also be hosting national debates where event organisers can share what they think as a way to avoid being affected by load shedding. ‘‘As Arts and Culture, we are mobilising event organisers to make contingency plans, such as procuring generators,” Dlamini said.

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