MY INVERTER KEEPS ME BREATHING

A Good Samaritan's generous gift means Brian Ndlovu no longer has to fear loadshedding

- LESEGO MAJA

FOR many South Africans investing in an inverter is a way to ease the pain of loadshedding.

It can keep a few lights on, power up some plugs, keep the wi-fi from going on the blink – but for one man, having an inverter is a matter of life or death.

Brian Ndlovu needs an oxygen machine to survive and his machine needs electricity to keep going. So when darkness descends the tension can be unbearable.

The 32-year-old from Lawley, Johannesburg, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), an incurable condition that obstructs the flow of air to his lungs.

He’s been using oxygen machines since he was 16 and loadshedding has had a severe impact on his condition.

He either had to travel to a relative’s home on a different load-shedding schedule or go to the Helen Joseph Hospital just so he could continue to breathe.

“I had to find transport to take me there,” Brian says. “And the person taking me had to carry the heavy oxygen machine in and out of the car.”

Having an inverter has been life-changing. He went on social media to share his struggle to stay alive during loadshedding and a Good Samaritan, who doesn’t want to be named, recently donated an inverter so his oxygen machine could keep going during blackouts.

It’s still touch-and-go every now and then – if a blackout lasts longer than its allotted hours the inverter battery runs down, leaving him gasping for breath.

Brian had to reschedule our interview after a lengthy outage exhausted his inverter and he needed to go to a relative to keep his machine running.