Politicians promises are recycled

As calls increase on the government to expedite energy generation from independent producers, politicians are having a field day with conjuncture. At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said the target to eradicate load shedding is 12-18 months.

Meanwhile, energy minister Gwede Mantashe claimed that there’s excess electricity idling in the system. Mantashe further said it will take 6-12 months to address rolling blackouts if Eskom pays attention to the problem. However, the so-called experts dismiss his claims as outright lies.

In the midst of all this, imagine the plight of Koko Modipadi from Sekabing in Limpopo. She started a café after serving as a domestic worker for 35 years. Apart from it operating at a loss due to never-ending power cuts, now she’ll have to contend with the electricity tariff increase amid paying for a gas cooker to keep the business running during load shedding.

That’s beside some economic activities in her community having collapsed as a consequence of damaged electrical equipment. Yet, promises are recycled into platitudes with no end in sight. In March 2019, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said Eskom will overcome the electricity crisis in two years. But the blackouts went completely haywire, exposing his vacuity of ideas to arrest the root cause of the crisis.

In July 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a 10-point crisis plan to be implemented over two years. Still, outgoing Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter couldn’t pull it off. So, no amount of red herrings will gloss over such ineptitude. Even that blameshifting narrative of “nine wasted years” won’t wash. Load shedding has decimated most of the socioeconomic transformation milestones.

Morgan Phaahla, Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni