Navigating Load Shedding: Tech Entrepreneurs at the Edge of Africa’s Silicon Cape

Abstract

This article presents a preliminary analysis of how tech entrepreneurs in the townships situated on the outskirts of Cape Town are developing digital solutions amidst everyday blackouts. The intermittent blackouts, which are known as load shedding in South Africa, are scheduled by the national power utility Eskom to avoid national power failure. The effects of load shedding are inconceivable, especially for tech entrepreneurs and their main customers, people living in historically racially segregated and underserved townships where energy poverty is higher. We present everyday narratives co-created through design anthropological interventions and ethnographic fieldwork with tech entrepreneurs on the current energy crisis and how it relates to South Africa’s Apartheid history. The co-created material further centres on what tech and energy futures might look like in a context where staying connected and accessing digital services requires ‘care’ and ‘hope’.