Maybe some of you think I possibly exaggerate some of my stories because many are unbelievable because you live in a first world country. Trust me when I say this I would like to believe they were made up as well as unfortunately they are all true and one could not make this stuff up. I am smart, but not smart enough to think up stories like the ones I have been writing on and they at least give me material to post about because many are so unique and that far out there. If I could find a positive story I would yet there are none and I have been looking because not everything can be so negative.
Yesterday I wrote a post about my grandson going back to school which would be a property his school had purchased. This was not an ideal property, but over time this could be expanded whilst acquiring properties on either side of the new school.
His new school which started to day is with a shared school that has kindly released a few class rooms on a short term basis. It turns out the purchase of the new school property will be delayed as the registrar buildings systems are down for the moment meaning no property purchase is being actioned. An update to the latest news is school is closed after just one day due to the size not being adequate enough so he spent the day at home and will have to wait. The plan is they will catch up the missed school during the July holidays instead.
Think of the chaos this is causing as I have heard the registrar/deeds building itself is not in good condition with the lifts and power working intermittently. I have been in a government building when doing a employees unfair dismissal hearing and experienced lifts not stopping at the correct floors and not even lining up with the floors when they stopped. Trust me there is nothing scarier and you will walk the stairs in future.
The problem with the systems all being down and not just the utility bills which I reported on a few days ago, but all the systems. Apparently the goal was to have one system control everything which sounds good until it all goes wrong. The deeds registrar office is not working at all and cannot even do this work manually as they rely on all the other information now not available to complete the property sale. Every day that passes the back log is only increasing and they are not going to tell you when the system broke and how many days in arrears this is. We kind of have an estimate of mid January but looking at my utility bill which made no sense I guess we are talking possibly December or November when this stopped working.
Property Market Has Been Frozen
What this means if you are in the process of selling or purchasing a property then your life is on hold permanently until the system is fixed and then the back log is worked through. People paying extra rentals for properties they purchased to move into or even worse having given notice of moving and are stuck in between with possibly no place to stay.
Estate agents are not earning any money as sales are all on hold, lawyers who do the legal side of things are not being paid and you can see what a huge mess this becomes very quickly.
Unfortunately many things do not work in South Africa and when you find something that works you have to celebrate the small things. We all know the reasons for the failures and most are self inflicted through lack of planning and execution due to total ignorance which is down to officials having only very basic education. The government buildings are a death trap with no investment or upkeep in years and now the systems are crashing. This does not give you much hope knowing the crooked cadres have stolen all the funds and now left wondering why things are failing. If they could they would blame the previous government, but oh wait that is them who have been in power for 32 years.
The roads are a nightmare with pot holes so large you could catch fish in them along with the traffic lights that no longer work due to cable theft or they are linked to the same systems everything else is connected to. Areas have had no water for weeks only having an apology that this is being attended to.
Tonight we went out to eat at a restaurant and at one point you could have mistaken for being in a disco with the lights going on and off numerous times. We could see a shopping center adjacent to the restaurant and if our lights went off theirs went back on and vice versa for many minutes before it stabilized. The infrastructure is under pressure and is failing and whoever keeps it operational must be a genius. I guess you could place a spin on this and what makes living in Africa so special as the experience is unique and adds to the charm.