When the lights kept going out in March this year thanks to Eskom’s load-shedding, some pupils at Filadelfia Secondary School in Soshanguve, Pretoria, had to stop talking.

The school is home to children with visual, hearing and physical disabilities, and when the lights go out, so does their ability to communicate and learn.

They had to make a plan to keep the lights on even when the power utility flipped the switch, so they turned to used car batteries and solar panels...