Act against Eskom looters

ESKOM needs to be saved and President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to announce how this will be done at a Joint Sitting of Parliament today.

As load shedding reached Stage 4 this week and left South Africans frustrated and angered by the latest crisis to hit the power utility, details started to emerge on the current failures at the Medupi and Kusile power plants, which were once touted as being the solution to the country’s power crisis.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan yesterday spoke of law enforcement needing to do its job and arrest those who have looted and broken down Eskom.

He said there would be litigation against those responsible for building the two power stations where major design flaws have been found. It was his revelation, though, that they have uncovered “corruption at every turn” that will elicit the greatest anger from South Africans.

When the building of the power plants was delayed, there was continuous reinforcement that once they both were fully online, this would solve the country’s energy problems.

Now it appears that corruption, mismanagement and greed have once again endangered the economy and placed jobs at risk.

This is unacceptable. Those who have benefited from the crisis at Eskom must not get away with it. SIR – THE HANDS OFF campaign is now very outdated and might just be what the campaign theme means, they are literally hands off. In the days of social media where most devices are hand-held, there is no intimacy with hands off street campaigners.

The advent of Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and other applica- tions provide for immediate access and connection. With the fall of traditional newspapers, the old television and phones, so are some of the old campaign planning methods, especially when they are for political expediency.

In a country that has daily protests, the hands off campaign has become a needle in a haystack. Who cares, we are all trying to keep afloat. Just on a single day, the target audience for a hands off campaign must compete with Zondo, Mokgoro, Agrizzi, Zuma, Eskom load shedding, school viral videos and many impromptu breaking news events.

Moyane’s loss at the Constitutional Court was hallowed by the crippling load shedding crisis. In the end, while those holding the placards may but just be wishing that you actually fail, the hands off campaign is no guarantee of success.

In a country with more smartphones that the entire population of our neighbouring countries, it’s important to rethink the hands off campaign and embrace the social media world.

It’s a bit naive to think that the electorate can’t see through some of the actions of the patrons of hands off, they are much wiser and more knowledgeable that the campaign planners could imagine.

Rather than hands off, let it be hands on and win the hearts and minds of the targeted audience

SELLO MATSIE (writing in his personal capacity)