Residents of Newcastle in northern KwaZulu-Natal have cosy candlelit dinners only by choice. Not one of the 400,000 inhabitants has ever experienced load-shedding.While other South Africans have endured the power outages since 2008, these people can thank forward planning for keeping their lights on."We long ago installed geyser- controlling regulators in all houses, which allows us to turn off geysers during peak periods," said mayor Afzul Rehman.Eskom says that councils are entitled to introduce their own measures for the prevention of load-shedding.Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe said: " When Eskom declares load-shedding some municipalities might decide to use various options to reduce their demand on the system. This is a decision for the municipality as a licensed distributor of electricity ."Newcastle residents regard themselves as "privileged" and praise their municipality.Resident Nik Singh said: "I am extremely grateful to be living here. We should count our blessings that we do not get affected by load-shedding. Credit must be given to our mayor, who always ensures that Newcastle has the best and always remains on top."Last year Rehman was named KwaZulu-Natal's top mayor for the third year in a row.The chairman of the Newcastle Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Alex Lui, said operating in an area without load-shedding "made a huge difference" to the many clothing and textile factories in Newcastle.He said factories in Madadeni, near Newcastle, which get their electricity direct from Eskom, had been badly affected by load-shedding."For a labour-intensive business, load-shedding makes a huge difference. Often staff sit for two hours without any production. The employer is faced with a very tough decision. Should he let the staff go and waste the whole day?"Sometimes in Madadeni they don't have power for two days."Rehman said last year that the municipality was considering taking over from Eskom to supply electricity to the Madadeni township and industrial area.It has already taken over powering Newcastle's street lights ."Eskom does not repair street lights fast enough. We agreed to take them over and manage them ourselves."We want Newcastle to be a model city," said the mayor...