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The nettle must be grasped and the bloated labour force that imperils efficiency and economic sustainability in the utility addressed. Eskom has more than 48 000 workers on its payroll. Surely it's time to heed a World Bank study that found it to be 66% overstaffed, writes Ghaleb Cachalia
The stark reality is that Eskom is strangling our economy and there appears to be little light at the end of the tunnel.
This parlous state of affairs - debt of R450 billion and unbudgeted-for restructuring costs running into trillions of rands - is courtesy of an ANC mired in a malaise, stultified in a socialism that delivers despair and a command and control statist scam that keeps South Africans in the dark, and the economy in tatters.
This crippling debt and series of proposed half measures from government heralds more mismanagement, graft, continued governmental interference to foster an elite, and an army of beholden voters who are deployed to deliver diminishing returns.
The President is captain of this ship, dead on course for collision with an iceberg of titanic proportions.
After years of mismanagement of the very infrastructure the ANC fought to inherit, this government has taken tentative steps at the eleventh hour to undo the folly of their own doing, and while it is necessary, it is not sufficient - not by a long chalk.
As the Democratic Alliance (DA) we welcome the decision to allow municipalities to buy from independent power producers as announced by the president in his SONA address.
The DA has been calling for this ever since the first lightbulb began to flicker.
It's time however for the president to put his money where his mouth is and drop the court case against the City of Cape Town that seeks to prevent them from procuring directly to keep the lights of the economy burning.
The president cannot have his cake and eat it. It’s time to tell his hidebound alliance partners - Cosatu, in particular to take a hike - not the hike in tariffs sought by Eskom that will burden consumers unreasonably but a rejection of their hare-brained attempt to collar pension funds to prop up failure.
The nettle must be grasped and the bloated labour force that imperils efficiency and economic sustainability in the utility addressed. Eskom has more than 48 000 workers on its payroll.
Surely it's time to heed a World Bank study that found it to be 66% overstaffed.
As economist Iraj Abedian says, Eskom has served South Africa in the 20th century, but it cannot serve us in the 21st century.
Moreover, the much vaunted un-bundling must happen now - the generation, transmission and distribution businesses must be split with immediate effect, and some of its plants privatised with agreements in tow to buy the power they produce.
Indeed, why stop there? Why not dispose of a stake in Eskom itself?
This would require resolve and a willingness to confront the labour aristocracy of the unions. Has the president the gumption for this?
One would hope so.
There should be no holy cows in a crisis.
It's not about privatisation per se.
After all, the solid state-owned car maker, Volvo, was able to prosper and survive when it’s elegant private sector competitor, Saab bit the dust.
But this is not Scandinavia and our state has proved its inability to demonstrate the required capability.
It is therefore incumbent on the government to demonstrate the wisdom and guts to embrace privatisation where it is called for - for the sake of our nation and our economy.
The time has come to return power to the people.
What is needed is for the stifling regulatory red-tape, technical barriers, complex registration and licensing processes associated with embedded generation by customers to be eliminated.
And let's have visibility, not least for the sake of accountability, of least-cost plans and contracts.
Let's have a 100% audit of every new power contract and incremental power supplier to avoid the ANC having its grubby money-skimming hand on every single contract.
The folly of the past cannot be repeated.
Plans should include geographically diverse considerations for distributed power generation that target economic development and re-industrialisation in distressed mining areas, for example, where existing infrastructure, skills and grid connections can be leveraged.
As for the "philosophy maintenance" announced by the new CEO of Eskom, let's understand that there are diminishing returns for routine maintenance on ageing, clapped-out, coal-fired power generation plants - damaged by overloading for extended periods, non-refurbishment and the absence of maintenance over many damaging years.
Old, inefficient, non-environmentally compliant generation plants must be decommissioned and we need to understand the economic cost and impact of expensive emergency measures that are being contemplated, with a particular emphasis on transparency and affordability .
I could go on but you get my drift around the iceberg referred to earlier.
Sensibly regulated competition is the way forward. It's called privatisation - and that should instill hope not fear - as the DA has said for eons.
We have called for a round table, action-oriented discussion in a non-partisan manner on the future of this SOE that is circling the drain.
These requests have sadly fallen on the deaf ears of the minister who hasn’t even acknowledged our written request to meet.
Is this how a country is run?
We hope not; it's time to put your money where your mouth is, return power to the people.
- Ghaleb Cachalia is an MP and the DA's spokesperson on Public Enterprises.
