Jo’burg life is never dull…

It was an interesting day yesterday.
Firstly, there was a student demonstration outside campus over plans to increase tuition fees next year. Protestors were not allowed on campus, and after a couple of hours of singing and banging drums it seems several students tried to break through the gates, at which point the police moved in and enthusiastically dispersed them with salvos of rubber bullets and tear-gas. Since the geology department overlooks the main entrance, we all got a grandstand view; fortunately, it seems that no-one was injured.
Ten minutes later, we were plunged into darkness due to a “load-shedding” exercise by the power company: increased energy usage in the current cold and damp weather is apparently straining the grid to breaking point, so successive districts around the city are being subjected to 2 or 3 hour rolling blackouts to prevent the entire system melting down.
Living here is a real eye-opener sometimes.