Nelson Mandela’s country, one year after his death, a feeling of grim frustration has taken hold.
South Africa is a land of highest highs and lowest lows — and over the past few months, the pendulum has swung to the pessimistic end of the spectrum.
As South Africans paused Friday to remember their former president and reflect on his legacy, the country’s weighty challenges — a sputtering economy, resurging crime, political paralysis — were front and center.
It doesn’t help that many of us are in the dark. Huge swathes of South Africa’s cities have been without electricity for hours and days as Eskom, the musty old power utility, enforces “load shedding,” or rolling blackouts. The power cuts in recent weeks have been the worst in many years as Eskom struggles to meet demand.
This isn’t the only state entity in trouble — postal workers just last week returned from a months-long strike. With no mail delivered since August, and with Christmas nearing, there is a massive backlog of letters and parcels.
All of this spells trouble for an already faltering economy, with GDP growth forecast at just 1.4 percent for 2014.
