The Chronicles of Load-Shedding . Harold Mawela

The Architecture of Ashes: Where God Builds His Thrones My friend, let me tell you about the year my own personal Johannesburg burned down. It was not a fire of flames, but of silence. The corporate contract, a golden calf I had sacrificed countless evenings to, was not renewed. The emails, once a torrent of demands, dried up into a desert of nothing. My career, a skyscraper I had spent two decades meticulously constructing, seemed to evaporate into the Highveld haze. There I was, a man in his prime, sitting in my Akasia home, watching the geckos on the wall with a greater sense of purpose than I felt. My worth, so tightly woven into my job title and the digits in my bank account, unraveled faster than a cheap sweater. We all know this feeling, don’t we? In a South Africa where load-shedding doesn't just dim our lights but our hopes, where the news cycle is a relentless drumbeat of corruption, unemployment, and crime, it is easy to feel… lowered. Brought low. We have built our towe...

Breaking Chains: The Scandal of Gospel Freedom in a Land of Contradictions The Unfinished Liberation Freedom—the word dances on the tongues of politicians, echoes in protest songs, and is etched into the very soul of our nation. Yet here in Akasia, just north of Pretoria where the urban and semi-rural landscapes merge into a complex tapestry of hope and struggle , I find myself pondering a deeper freedom. A freedom that doesn't depend on which political party holds power, which economic policies prevail, or which cultural movements dominate. A freedom that cost God everything and offers everything to us. Picture if you will a man who has been imprisoned for decades, his cell door suddenly swung open by a liberator who paid his ransom with his own life. Yet this freed man continues to pace the familiar confines of his small cell, sleeping on the cold floor, eating the meager rations, unable to comprehend that the door now opens outward rather than inward. This is the tragic paradox ...

The Divine Network: Beyond the Algorithm of Self-Effort My friend, have you ever found yourself in a spiritual load-shedding? The lights of your own plans flicker and die, the hum of your striving falls silent, and you are left in the quiet, frustrating dark, powerless. I have. Just the other day, sitting in my study in Akasia, the familiar dread descended as Eskom’s schedule plunged my world into a premature night. My laptop battery glowed, a tiny island in the darkness, and my phone—my sole connection to the digital universe—began its desperate drain from 100% to zero. In that silence, interrupted only by the chorus of crickets and the distant generator of a more prepared neighbour, the Lord spoke. Not in a audible voice, but in the quiet conviction of the Spirit. My screen, once filled with emails, networking requests, and LinkedIn profiles, was now a mirror. I saw my own face, lit by a feeble glow, and I realised: I had been confusing my contact list for my divine connections. I ha...

The End of Your Famine: Finding Supernatural Provision in South Africa’s Uncertain Times The Darkness That Speaks Another evening in Akasia, Pretoria, and the familiar silence descends with authoritarian finality. Load-shedding stage six—the great equalizer that humbles both mansion and modest home alike. In this imposed darkness, with only the glow of my smartphone illuminating the page, I hear it: the low grumble of empty stomachs not just in my home but across our neighborhood, our city, our nation. It’s not merely the hunger for food, but the deeper famine of hope in a land where promise often seems perpetually deferred . The numbers tell their own grim story: official unemployment at 32% (youth unemployment nearly double that), 23% of our children living in severe food poverty, and 287 public schools still relying solely on pit latrines—a deadly indignity that has claimed young lives . We live amid what economists call an "upper-middle-income country" yet millions experi...

The Healer's Decree: God's Restoration Promise for Broken South African Lives A Personal Encounter with Divine Healing The relentless African sun beat down upon my tin roof in Akasia as I lay shivering beneath blankets despite the oppressive Pretoria heat. Malaria—that ancient African scourge—had rendered my body a battlefield of fevered contradictions. Cold and hot, strong and feeble, hopeful and despairing. As load-shedding plunged our neighborhood into its scheduled darkness, my physical darkness felt complete. Yet in that vulnerable moment, Jeremiah's ancient words pierced through my misery like dawn breaking over the Magaliesberg: "For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord" (Jeremiah 30:17, ESV) . This promise became my spiritual lifeline—not as some magical incantation but as a theological anchor in the storm of suffering. As I journeyed from infirmity to wholeness, I discovered that God's healing decree addresses n...

  Breaking Every Chain: Christ’s Strength in Our South African Struggle A Personal Encounter with Limitation The darkness seemed to swallow our neighborhood whole. I sat in my Akasia home, the familiar hum of appliances silenced by yet another bout of load-shedding. My smartphone's glow illuminated frustrated faces in our living room—my youngest daughter anxiously glancing at her uncharged tablet, my wife mentally rearranging the meals that would spoil in our dormant refrigerator. In that moment, the chains felt tangible—not just of Eskom's failure to keep the lights on, but of a broader limitation that weaves itself into our South African consciousness. We know the ache of unfulfilled potential, the weight of historical baggage, the frustration of systems that fail despite our best efforts. And I wondered, as the candlelight danced shadows on the walls: Is this all we were made for? A life of coping with breakdowns, both literal and metaphorical? Then my eyes fell on the famil...

Every Barred Gate Now Opens: Divine Favor in a Season of Alignment A Personal Story: The Wait That Preceded the Opening Let me tell you about my nephew, Lethabo. Bright-eyed, graduated with honors in software engineering from Tshwane University of Technology, yet for eighteen months—five hundred and forty-eight days, to be exact—he paced the dusty streets of Akasia, CV in hand, chasing shadows of opportunity. Each morning began with hope; each evening ended with the silent humiliation of rejection. "Sorry, we're looking for someone with more experience." "The position has been frozen." "We'll keep your application on file." I watched his shoulders slump lower with each passing month, the crushing weight of deferred dreams etching lines too deep for one so young. We prayed together every Tuesday evening on my porch, overlooking the patchwork of rooftops that blanket our township, the air thick with the scent of wood smoke and desperation. "Haro...

Where Tears Water Seeds of Glory: Finding God in South African Suffering My Encounter with the Sacred Wound The screeching tires echoed like a devil's chorus on the N1 highway near Akasia last winter. My car hydroplaned, spinning in a terrifying dance with gravity before crashing into the barrier. In those suspended seconds between control and chaos, I experienced the strange peace of absolute helplessness. The ambulance arrived, then the concerned faces of strangers, then the long recovery—both physical and spiritual. That crash became my classroom, and in the aching stillness that followed, I discovered a profound truth: God doesn't eliminate our pain; He inhabits it. This personal trauma intersected with our national pain. Just weeks earlier, the Umtata flooding had devastated the Eastern Cape, claiming nearly a hundred lives and leaving thousands homeless . As I lay watching news reports of washed-away homes and grieving families, my minor suffering paled against their monu...

 The Idol Maker’s Heart: A South African’s Journey from Crafted Gods to Crucified Grace Part 1: The Craftsman on Church Street Just last Tuesday, I met a man on Church Street in Pretoria—a craftsman with fingers stained by wood polish and eyes weary from too much seeing. He sat outside the gleaming glass offices of a new bank, his weathered hands carving a small figure from tamboti wood. Tourists gathered around him, admiring how the form of a graceful impala emerged from what was once a formless block. "This will bring you protection," he whispered to a fascinated onlooker. "The spirit of this creature will watch over your home." I stood transfixed, not by the carving itself, but by the sacred irony of it all. Here on Church Street, between the stained-glass windows of a historic chapel and the mirrored facade of economic power, a human being was doing what we all do—shaping something to worship, something to trust in, something to give us what only God can give . ...

 Preparation Meets the Moment of Destiny: Divine Readiness in a Time of Load-Shedding A Light in the Darkness: My Akasia Epiphany The relentless buzz of my generator hums through another night of load-shedding here in Akasia. Outside my window, the darkness blankets our streets—a familiar scene across our beloved South Africa. Yet in this forced stillness, I find myself contemplating a deeper truth: How often does God use these forced blackouts in our lives to teach us to rely on His eternal light? The very darkness that frustrates our plans becomes the canvas upon which God paints His most brilliant purposes. This past week, as stage six load-shedding hit our community, I witnessed something beautiful emerging from the darkness. My neighbor, old Mr. Khumalo, who normally remains secluded behind his high wall, emerged with candles and a kettle, creating an impromptu sidewalk café where neighbors gathered, shared stories, and connected in ways we haven't in years. In that moment, I ...