We were bumbling down one of the city’s main roads when my eye caught a glimpse of a poster advertising something by or about Centlec. Since this poster – as well as many that followed – was affixed to a lamppost with a variety of other posters, including those doing their best to persuade the population to vote for this, that, or the other particular party, I wondered for a frightening moment if our electricity provider had founded its own political party and opted to enter politics. (As if it hasn’t been in politics surreptitiously for a good number of years already).
I began to imagine their pitch-black T-shirts with an enormous white bulb on it, below which, in bright fluorescent paint, would be the slogan: LET US BRING LIGHT INTO YOUR DARKNESS. Then I realised that there would be countless accusations about the colours of the T-shirt and the bulb, to say nothing of the slogan. So I came to the conclusion that the Centlec poster must be about something else.
I had to drive past these posters numerous times before I could even manage to read the heading – something about their having changed address – because (a) the lettering on the posters is far too small, and (b) most folks will be travelling past them at speeds well beyond the legal limit. Of course, the crucial information on the poster – the new address, for example – appears in even more diminutive lettering. I realised that the realistic thing to do would be to stop and take a photograph so that I could absorb the details at my leisure. Understandably, any attempt to stop to accomplish such a mission was rendered impossible by the hundreds of other motorists more anxious to get to work, school, gym, or secret assignation, than to read the poster. So, don’t be alarmed of you see me creeping towards a lamppost at midnight trying to take that photograph.
Be that as it may, I still wonder: Could Centlec be secretly in cahoots with Eskom, doing their habitual utmost to keep us all in the dark?