Read report and weep

The German coal power experts’ report on Eskom has finally seen the light of day (“Using more loadshedding to end load-shedding”, March 6). It makes for sobering reading.

Albeit couched in dry, technical language, in essence the report states that the ANC government and its deployees have no conception of how to run the power system. Our power availability factor hovers around 50%, compared with a global average of almost 80%.

The position is so dire that over the next year or two outside financial and technical experts should be brought in to intervene in key risk areas and procure critical parts. These experts should, during this interim stage, bypass Eskom and report directly to the Treasury.

This exceptional recommendation reveals the depth of our challenges, and the inability of management to address these crises. Power station managers lack agency, and their procurement needs are stranded in endless head office committees. If Eskom’s leadership reflects the cadres of the ANC, it is clear that our governing party is in stasis. In a modern industrial state one must be ever-focused on stress-testing future outcomes, and obsessive about preserving and improving one’s capital plant.

The economy is shrinking as the initial goodwill and momentum of 1994 is swallowed up in the static, deadening political culture of the ANC. But culture can change, even within the ANC government and its state-owned enterprises.

Our political parties must work together to promote a robust and innovative culture. The report of the German experts outlines how this change of culture can be embodied in a renewed management structure at Eskom.

Willem Cronje Cape Town