Tackling the power crisis
TO QUALIFY as a failed state, service delivery needs to collapse completely and lawlessness must be rampant.
Experts, however, say that South Africa is not yet a failed state. That it is indeed failing, is true for all to see. For South Africans, hearing the words “lack of service delivery” or “lawlessness”, immediately brings a plethora of examples and real-life experiences to mind. For many of us, especially our poorest citizens, the state is not failing – it has failed a long time ago.
For over a decade, Eskom has been at the forefront of electricity service delivery discussions. It is probably the truest and most accurate example of the failures of our government. South Africans have been living with load shedding for more than fifteen years now. Fifteen years! With absolutely no hint of it ending and a very real concern that a total collapse of the system is imminent.
But why re-hash it again here? Why do we need to keep talking about Eskom?
We need to reiterate the Eskom crisis because it is the embodiment of our government’s inability to maintain and develop infrastructure, and it is a telling example of its lack of aptitude to solve real-life challenges.
Moreso, Eskom serves as a blaring alarm of what lies in store for our country under an inept government.
Sadly, this is true for every state entity, be it SOEs or government departments. We have more than enough reason to feel hopeless.
But is there a light at the end of this tunnel? If we can’t see it now, it is crucial that we find it.
Let’s turn to the Eskom crisis again, since the country has faced unprecedented time frames of stage 6 loadshedding over the past few days.
I mentioned that Eskom is an example of how the national government fails, firstly, to maintain infrastructure and, secondly, struggles to solve real-life challenges.
It seems as if the ANC government has lost the plot. From establishing the so-called Crisis Committee, to announcing the Energy Response Plan, nothing has come of it. The DA’s implementation tracker shows that there has been no implementation of any sort and that nothing is currently on track.
What’s worse is that South Africans have completely lost faith in the ANC, its ability and political will to address the energy crisis. Tariff increases (with a 32% increase now in the works), bailouts (amounting to R220 billion since 2008) and appointing new CEOs (13 different CEOs since 2007) have been the ANC’s go-to solutions. What have they got to show for this after fifteen years?
In the Western Cape, however, the picture looks starkly different and DA governments are hard at work to address the crisis and to ease the burden on consumers.
The City of Cape Town, for example, is able to protect its customers from at least one stage of load shedding, mainly by using its Steenbras Hydro Pump Storage Scheme that generates spare capacity. In a statement released by the City on September 18, it said that it is “also continuing to build on its programme of becoming load-shedding resilient over time by focusing on energy diversification”.
Similar marks of ingenuity and dedication to address the electricity crisis is shown elsewhere in the province too.
In George, for example, a solar plant at their Civic Centre supplies electricity to the building itself and excess electricity is fed back into the grid to supply nearby households.
In the Hessequa Municipality, there is South Africa’s first solar-powered desalination plant to produce drinking water from saltwater at a competitive price without CO2 emissions.
In Drakenstein, the Leliefontein pump-as-turbine station generates electricity using the same set of pumps that pump water by reversing the flow.
And in Stellenbosch, the municipality has started to install the first solar panels on municipal properties.
Today, twenty-four municipalities in the Western Cape allow small-scale renewable energy generation and many of these municipalities offer compensation for businesses and households who are feeding energy back into the grid.
As the official opposition party, the DA has also tabled innovative and practical solutions to the Eskom crisis nationally. Some of the concrete proposals the DA has put forward to address the electricity crisis include the government to privatise electricity generation, allowing citizens to generate their own power; change the law so businesses and individuals can sell the extra electricity they generate onto the grid; offer a R75 000 tax rebate to cover the cost of installing solar systems in homes; zero-rate VAT on LED lightbulbs and energy-efficient appliances; ease the regulatory requirements for sub 100MW generation; and to bring small Independent Power Producers online quicker.
The question I posed in opening is whether there is light at the end of tunnel. Whether there is hope to be found in the darkness. The pun is very much intended.
In the Western Cape we know that there is light at the end of the tunnel because we have very capable provincial and local governments actively working towards solutions. South Africans are getting tired of empty promises, hollow commitments, oversight committees, plans and grand speeches. The promise of a new dawn never realised – and darkness took its place.
Surely voters will opt for the light at the end of the tunnel, come elections 2024.