Switch off the beer fridges, says Lynne Brown

Cape Town - Getting rid of electricity-guzzling beer and cold drink fridges in bottle stores may be one way of preventing load shedding, Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown said in the debate on the president’s State of the Nation speech in Parliament.

Brown said the idea came unsolicited from a Mr Cammy Fernandes, a retailer from Gordon’s Bay who expressed sadness about the predicament “with regard to (state power monopoly) Eskom”.

Although the minister said she laughed at his power-cutting suggestion at first, he proposed that “we get rid of walk-in fridges in bottle stores, which … for those who are unfamiliar with the inside of liquor outlets … are used to store mainly beer and soft drinks”.