For what it's worth, in response to the detractors in this thread: I like the new plug standard.
South Africa got stuck on the old British World War 2-era BS546 standard while the rest of the world moved on to better standards.
Would it have been better for South Africa to adopt the new flat-pin British plug standard, Schuko, or the Australian standard? Maybe.
Instead, as a small fish in a big ocean we decided to throw our lots in with the global standardisation body (IEC). From where I'm sitting, that's a perfectly rational thing to do. When the international body resposible for electrotechnical standards embarks on a project to standardise the whole 250V world's plugs and sockets that's a pretty noble goal to get behind.
I would far rather that we stay the course and adopt a standard that is interchangeable with Europlug, and ultimately get rid of those irritating Schuko plugs altogether in time, than see the country dither like we did with the digital TV migration.
As a reminder: part of the reason for South Africa's current spectrum mess is because the 2010 administration of the Department of Communications decided to throw out the standard that the whole industry had agreed-upon back in 2005.
I'm all for refining standards, or migrating to newer, better standards, but to halt a process halfway is not a good call.
Plus, for all we know, South Africa's adoption of the standard might help reignite debates in other countries to get the whole 250V world converge on one standard. It's unlikely, but a man can dream.
(Regarding my Schuko remarks: It's a fine standard, but I honestly think IEC 60906-1 is better as it is more compact.)
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