Eskom casts a long shadow over South Africa’s future
ESKOM’s handling of the Majuba power station debacle shows that the utility has learnt nothing from the dark days of 2008, when its power cuts turned off the lights and delivered a body blow to mining and industry. The familiar lies, half-truths and deceptions were offered to justify its glaring inadequacies. At first we were told there had been a “crack” in a coal silo at Majuba, only for Eskom to have to admit — when a video of the catastrophe went viral — that the silo had in fact collapsed.
It was entirely unexpected, said Eskom. But there had been hints that Eskom’s technicians had good reason to suspect all was not well with the silo, and chose to ignore the warnings. Predictably, a journalist was arrested for trying to get at the truth, as Eskom covered its tracks.
Much like the SABC and SAA, Eskom has long been a plaything of the ANC government, a victim of the lethal cocktail that has become the hallmark of the ruling party. Its principal ingredients are inefficiency, meddling, maladministration, wastefulness, suspicion and paranoia. Like the other state-owned entities, and given the continued exodus of skills from its ranks at all levels, Eskom has given up the pretence of being a public utility run for the general good.
Instead, this out-of-control behemoth is packed with ANC cronies and supporters, drawing enormous salaries and bonuses, and forever pleading for a special deal in the form of higher electricity tariffs.
The ANC’s own “investment” company, Chancellor House, was a big beneficiary of Medupi, the over-budget, behind-schedule coal-powered giant that has been touted as an answer to our energy problems.
In Eskom, the ANC has again demonstrated its unrivalled ability to take what should be a simple public service and turn it into an arena of controversy.
Like the toll roads, Eskom is structured in such a way that it is neither a wholly-owned public service, nor a private entity. So Eskom guzzles public money, while its bosses are paid salaries on a par with executives in the private sector. It operates as a monopoly, yet in years past it has milked billions from taxpayers and consumers, only to give it back to industry as a payment for not using its services.
Supported by the quaint and outdated notion that only a state-owned entity with a mandate to serve the general good can do so, Eskom in reality chases profit with determination, while enjoying all of the protection afforded it by its special relationship with state and party.
There has recently been talk of privatisation of part of the energy sector, and this cannot come soon enough. What private entity would create conditions where it asks you to use its product sparingly?
Obviously, the ANC has a knack for complicating the most straightforward tasks in its continuing quest to reinvent the wheel.
It can blame wet coal, stray bolts and phantom cracks as much as it likes, but the real crisis is ideological, as the ANC goes about its business of recasting all of society and its useful institutions into ghastly mirror images of itself. Nothing is spared the dead hand, and the darkness spreads. The ANC likes to think it is emulating the Chinese model of stateowned enterprises. In China, though, when the boss of a state company messes up, he is quite often executed. Here the only punishment is “redeployment”, often with a nice bonus to ease the passage.
Eskom only compounds the uncertainty facing the South African economy, making the country less attractive as an investment destination. While the party reaps the dubious gains of having Eskom in its pocket, South Africa is all the poorer for it. Is there light at the end of this tunnel? Maybe, but Eskom in its present form is unlikely to be the source of it.