Shine a light into the murky corners at Megawatt Park

IT is a national disgrace that South African taxpayers and electricity consumers — who fund Eskom — are kept in the dark about the true state of affairs at the floundering utility. The suspension this week of Eskom’s CEO and three other top executives to facilitate an independent inquiry into problems at the parastatal is a welcome development, but it merely addresses the symptom rather than the cause of the threat Eskom has become to any hope our beloved country has of significant economic growth.

The truth is that no one really knows what the plans are to solve our electricity crisis and get South Africa back on a real growth path. Today, the Sunday Times reveals that a dentist and a beautician are among those who appear to keep our lights burning by providing diesel. How such haphazard planning was allowed to happen, no one wants to say.

The Department of Energy is both outspoken and vague on plans for co-generation, gas imports and independent power producers, but such plans are nonstarters as long as the government fails to provide an enabling and enticing regulatory environment.

Any reasonable South African would sympathise with the frustrations of Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown, who has spent the past 10 months fielding inquiries and listening to complaints from the public and business sector about the electricity crisis, only to be met with ducking and diving by the flunkies in charge.

Something had to give, and one can only hope that Brown’s forthright and honest efforts to get to the heart of the darkness enveloping us all is not met with her losing her cabinet portfolio, as is rumoured.

Because what she said needed to be raised, and the weak mandarins around her could not be bothered to give tough answers.

Earlier this week, her unimpressive cabinet colleague Tina Joemat-Pettersson again gave the middle finger to parliamentary accountability, finding somewhere else to be when she was supposed to be answering pressing questions from the taxpayers who fund her never-ending trips.

Clearly, she is going to do the same again this Tuesday, ignoring parliamentary oversight with the same impunity she displayed during her ill-fated tenure as agriculture and fisheries minister. Who are the taxpayers and the electricity-deprived public, after all, to demand answers about what you did with their money, if there is another plane to board and another country to visit?

What is needed is public accountability and a practical, transparent plan to address South Africa’s electricity shortfall.

The suspended Eskom executives appear to have added to the uncertainty by hiding details about the true cost of building the new coal-fired power stations Medupi and Kusile.

Many of South Africa’s existing power plants are nearing the end of their operational life and there is a massive maintenance backlog. At any given moment, a third of the country’s power generation ability is unavailable due to unplanned breakdowns at power stations.

We are spending billions of rands on diesel — one of the most expensive ways to produce electricity — just to keep the lights on.

Now disturbing details have emerged about how Eskom got its massive supply of diesel.

It’s not good enough to say there is no crisis. There is a crisis. And we need to get to the bottom of it.

Brown is right to ask uncomfortable questions. Let’s hope her efforts are not rewarded with a slap in the face in the next cabinet reshuffle.

In fact, let’s hope the government — for once — comes clean to those who fund it, as it should.