‘Will the lights be on for the State of the Nation address?’
Who would not like to work at Eskom if retired CEO, Brian Dames, took R22 million home last year?
DEAR Editor,-
We were incredulous when President Zuma stated that the current blackouts were due to apartheid. We thought that the CEO of Eskom, Tshediso Matona, probably got it right when he said in no uncertain a manner that Eskom’s failings were due to a lack of maintenance over the years.
We were disconcerted when possibly the most effective communicator of recent years, Andrew Etzinger, had his tongue stilled because his fluent explanations became unacceptable to the ruling party.
At a time when our daily visits of stage two blackouts are punctuated by an incident when Eskom passed through the threshold of third stage blackouts, how worried should we be by the bland assurance from the utility that there is not the slightest possibility of a total blackout?
If our figures are correct, Eskom has a generating capacity of about 40 000 megawatts. When stage three is reached, the utility has lost 4 000 megawatts and when it is breached, a national blackout is not very far down the road.
The five year delays in the commissioning of Medupi and Kusile Power Stations has seen the original budget of R150 billion jump up to R326 billion. Together with the monthly cost of R2 billion for diesel, this will push Eskom’s interest payments into the stratosphere.
A piece of legislation which would bring immediate relief and which would enable independent power producers to strengthen the national grid has been rejected by the NEC of the ANC where political will eats away the ability of the economy to grow. This ruling from Luthuli House has been duly accepted by the bloated top brass of the utility, many of whom owe their positions to being well connected politically, rather than knowing much about management and the generation of electricity.
On the one side there is an impossibly high wage bill, where the average yearly income of some 46 000 employees is R633 000 a year or R53 000 a month. Who would not like to work at Eskom with retired CEO, Brian Dames, taking home R22 million last year?
On the other side there is a patent inability to generate income by selling its product. The eight metros, seven of which are run down by the ANC, owe Eskom R53 billion. The total figure for all municipalities runs at R93 billion. Soweto alone owes Eskom R4 billion, but the ANC is unlikely to take any action with the Metro and municipal elections taking place early next year with their position faltering badly already.
When the weak and failing president of a sharply divided ANC drives to parliament on Thursday night, he will be greeted with a 21 gun salute. However, as he enters, he will not know whether the lights will go out, or whether he will be allowed to address the nation without interruption.
DAVE SNASHALL
