SA’s ‘whistling in the graveyard’

The old expression “whistling in the graveyard” is defined – per Wiktionary – as “to attempt to stay cheerful in a dire situation; to proceed with a task, ignoring an upcoming hazard, hoping for a good outcome”. Perhaps we are whistling in the graveyard, or indulging in wishful thinking, if we remind people of another old wisdom, that “it is darkest just before dawn”.

In the case of our basket case-country, we could hope that the stage 6 load shedding debacle is the darkest it can get and it can only get better – and brighter – in the future. Sadly, though, the one thing that the ANC has done with almost metronomic efficiency is make things much, much worse.

Will we get stage 7 or even stage 8 load shedding? Don’t bet against it. The fact that President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled a planned visit to the United Nations in New York to return home to “deal with the crisis” is more of a photo opportunity than anything else … a bit like the time he helped “repair” a pothole.

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His political opponents have tried to take advantage of his absence from the country at the height of the crisis. And they have made him look vulnerable. Which, if you think about it, might well be the motive behind the collapsing power system.

The excuses offered by Eskom CEO André de Ruyter would not have filled anyone with confidence that the electricity grid will be sorted out any time soon. How coincidental is it, in reality, that so many generating units go down at the same time, when consumer demand is low, over a weekend in warmer weather?

Are we being “softened up” for a revival of the Karpowership generating deal, which will cost more than R220 billion over 20 years? We are deliberately being kept in the dark, literally and figuratively.