Eureka — the light of truth shines at last
ESKOM, according to the power utility’s chairman Zola Tsotsi, is like a “person whose immune system is compromised”. After a week in which the bumbling parastatal — crippled by its guileless political masters and overawed by the immensity of building Medupi — plunged South Africa into darkness, it appears an appropriate, if tasteless, comparison with Africa’s most tragic pandemic.
But at least people who have HIV can, with the help of antiretrovirals, lead healthy, functional lives. If only there was a magic pill that Eskom’s top brass could pop.
Tsotsi, defeated but philosophical about this week’s disaster, admitted this in the aftermath of a hastily convened press conference on Friday.
Eskom called the conference so that CEO Brian Dames could say “sorry” to the public for forcing them to dig deep into their stash of candles.
Dames read the predictable script: load-shedding was, he said, “a very painful decision” and “we are very well aware of the impact on people’s lives and the economy”.
Sure, which is why Eskom gave the country an hour’s notice before switching off the lights on Thursday morning.
But this “apology” doesn’t cloak the fact that Eskom has reputational issues in the same way that Oscar Pistorius has had the odd legal hiccup. The truth, as the poor journalists packed into court GD at the high court in Pretoria to watch the unfolding car wreck can attest, is rather more serious.
The good news is that “load-shedding” — the polite phrase used in the boardrooms of Megawatt Park for what happens when you suddenly go blind — has now been halted for the time being.
The bad news, as Tsotsi revealed, is that the country will teeter on the verge of blackouts “for some time, even when new capacity comes online” because it will take some time to be assured this power is reliable.
The best-case scenario is that it will take two years before Eskom has enough capacity to feed through into our stuttering grid. It is a bittersweet irony that it is only thanks to another South African malady — the strikes on the platinum mines — that Eskom has had enough power in reserve to keep the lights on until now.
The spin this week from government was lamentable. Environ- ment Minister Edna Molewa said: “Arising from the wet coal and the wet situation that caused this loadshedding, we are going to be discussing [this so that] it does not occur again.” She hastened to add: “If the rains subside, then obviously we’ll be back to normal.” This wasn’t exactly true. As Tsotsi’s admission suggested, Eskom’s problems aren’t just wet hair, or acne. The infection is much deeper and far more prevalent.
On Friday, Dames admitted that the “wet coal” theory didn’t, you know, hold water. Rather, the real problem was that Eskom just doesn’t have spare capacity, so any small event that affects its ageing 30-year infrastructure, like wet coal or problems at its Kendal power station, tips the balance.
“If we had got Medupi in 1998, this would not have happened,” he said.
Again, it all comes back to Medupi — the mega power station being constructed far too late, for too much money, and with not nearly enough competence.
During the height of the blackouts in 2008, the hapless former public enterprises minister, Alec Erwin, assured us that after 2011, once Medupi was up and running, the country wouldn’t have to worry about a repeat of that incident.
But Medupi has broken a string of deadlines, due in no small part to numerous botch-ups from the contractors. Erwin’s successor, Malusi Gigaba, pledged that “heads would roll” should further deadlines be broken, but no heads rolled.
There is, of course, some faint hope that Medupi will be able to deliver some power by the end of this year — a mere three years late — but it would be a trickle compared with the flood Medupi initially promised. The 4 800MW it will produce won’t be the salve needed.
Six years later, the only difference is that the promises get broken quicker. Two weeks ago, Dames said: “Eskom is in control.”
On Friday, an exhausted Dames, who apparently hadn’t slept for two nights, essentially conceded that Eskom had lost control. Finally, someone was telling the truth.