Draining the lifeblood

Fans of Matt Taibbi’s description of Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money” might like to consider Eskom in a similar vein.

If Goldman is a vampire squid, Eskom must be at least the Kraken sea monster, or possibly some other hideous creature that has attached itself to the body of the state and is trying to drain the very lifeblood out of it with demented carnal activity.

There’s no doubt that Eskom exemplifies all the worst kleptocratic incompetence of the Zuma years and that what’s left of it is the biggest threat to government’s ability to do anything to kick-start the economy and to get to grips with unemployment. Clearly no modern economy can hope to function without reliable and affordable electricity, and the current chaotic bout of load-shedding is knocking the stuffing out of confidence levels both on business and personal levels.

There’s no time to waste in getting to grips with the issues, starting with a frank assessment of the status quo to allocate capital efficiently to boost the energy-availability factor.

The constant litany of cost explosion and delays in the construction of Medupi and Kusile form a perfect case study of how not to manage a large project, and provide ammunition for those who would advocate investing in renewables. The good news is that the president has turned a spotlight on the problem. Now he needs the political will to drive through long-term solutions.