Pull the plug on Eskom excess
THINGS are getting desperate at Megawatt Park, headquarters of Eskom. Like a drunken sailor in a bar at closing time, Eskom refuses to see that the party is over. Or should be. Now the “utility”, as it ironically styles itself, wants R50-billion of public money in a bail-out, about R1 000 for every person in the country, and many of them still without lights 20 years after our political “dark ages”. A top-level government committee is “studying” the request.
Eskom clearly has powerful political sponsors in the higher reaches of power, and here one look no further than the cabinet’s rising star, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba. An ardent admirer of China’s state-owned enterprises, Gigaba appears blinded by ideology to the woeful, and deteriorating, record of South Africa’s own state companies. Eskom, SA Airways, the SABC and other, less well-known, sponges on the public purse are the price we pay for the ANC’s stubborn adherence to failed policies. And its fondness for its own monopolies.
South Africa is the loser in this sorry tale. At the very least, then, is it asking too much that the whip be cracked at Eskom and that costs be brought under control? Allowing spending of R500-million on a headquarters makeover is not a good place to start. Then, as a further step to restore some power-supply sanity, the government should follow expert and sensible policy advice, and free up the national grid so that Eskom becomes but one provider of electricity among many others.
As it is, Eskom pays its customers not to use electricity, while its new plants run billions over budget and an ANC-linked company benefits. It hobbles the economy and spews tons of noxious gases into the air in open immunity from strict air-pollution laws. In spite of its spiralling costs and a proven inability to provide long-term power security, it pays salaries and bonuses that would bankrupt a private company. And we are being given a bill for R50-billion for more of the same? The Treasury should flip the switch on this outrageous and politically expedient request.