This morning Eskom notified the country that it was moving to Stage 6 load shedding.
And because Eskom provides our electricity, we direct our frustration towards them.
But, should we blame Eskom? Is the cause of our electricity supply problems not somewhere else? Are we not blaming the messenger?
Who owns Eskom?
Eskom is owned 100% by the South African Government.
As the sole and majority shareholder, the government has the final say in how Eskom as a business is run.
You can read everything about Eskom here.
What is the problem with Eskom?
Firstly, Eskom has more employees than they need. Eskom has too many employees.
So, why don’t Eskom fire the excess employees as is done in any business where the health and continued existence of the business are at stake?
The ANC government is notorious for saying things without the ability or intention to execute them. It is also possibly the only organisation in the world that protests against itself.
Why Eskom cannot solve its problems
- The government is the sole shareholder and overseer of Eskom.
- The government applied their policy of cadre deployment at Eskom. Cadre deployment is nepotism which, at its core, carries the seeds of failure unless society enforces the required standards. Socialist labour unions are the ANC’s biggest “supporters” although union members are part of the problem.
- The requirement for working at Eskom, especially in the management positions, was whether you were an ANC member or family member or friend of an influential ANC member. The result was catastrophic.
- Eskom has difficulty getting rid of excess employees.
- The ANC government is generally unable to enforce law and order, act against sabotage and bring their supporters to book.
What are the realities that we deal with around Eskom?
There is a range of factors that define the problems we experience with electricity provision, most of which are also applicable to any other area of the political, social and economic landscape where the ANC as the government is involved.
We must understand:
- The ANC is dependent on votes to legally stay in power.
- The socialist labour unions have a substantial portion of the potential electorate as their members. They represent only a very small portion of the electorate and have to enforce their actions by illegal force, destruction and intimidation.
- The ANC wrongly believe they cannot stay in power without the socialist unions.
- The ANC is inherently a racist organisation supported by people based on racist convictions.
- The ANC lacks the human material to govern a country be it politically, economically or socially. They are unable to comprehend the functioning of the world in which they operate.
- Because the ANC cannot deliver results or their own promises, they need to neglect education. The reason is that educated people start thinking long-term, depend less on others and want to see results. Uneducated people realise that they don’t understand the world in which they live and therefore they have to depend heavily on others and the promises they receive.
- The ANC as a freedom movement cultivated the belief among the people that one can advance through disruption and distrust in the institutions of government.
Where are we in relation to Eskom?
Consider this.
- Eskom must provide reliable, affordable power to South Africa.
- The ANC government is the majority shareholder that dictates Eskom.
- The majority of voters are jobless and/or uneducated.
- The socialist unions are the tail that wags the dog based on the ANC’s erroneous belief in their strength and the ability of union leadership to activate members with the fear of losing their jobs.
- All people in a country look after their own interests before they look after the interest of the country as a whole. They are focused on self-preservation because it is their first responsibility.
- Electricity users inconvenienced by electricity cuts blame Eskom as it is the face of electricity provision in South Africa.
What is happening now?
Eskom management, after cadre deployment was reduced, consists of competent people who have correctly formulated what Eskom needs to not only survive but be able to fulfil its mandate.
The Government however have different pressures, mostly coming from their uneducated, illiterate en racist supporters and the socialist labour unions.
The government does not have the leadership material to manage these voters. In my view, this happens not so much because of what the voters want as that the leadership is unable to “sell” the real solution to the voters.
The result is that government leaders and the ANC as organisation realise that they are unable to provide what the people need and will probably never be able to govern successfully. That leads to short-term thinking which aims only to “look after myself until I leave” and accept no responsibility for what happens to the people afterwards.
Eskom cannot get finance if the government will not alow management to reduce staff and root out corruption.
So, here is the situation:
- Consumers and industry demand a reliable electricity supply.
- Eskom can solve the problem if it can get finance and reduce employee numbers. The government won’t allow them to solve the problem. The socialist unions won’t allow a solution because that means some of their members will lose their employment, and the leaders their income.
What is the solution?
There is no solution.
The only solution would be that South Africa has a government change or that the ANC gets rid of cadre deployment and corruption.
The ANC getting rid of corruption is already widely accepted as impossible because the organisation has been infiltrated and taken over by criminals who realised that corruption carries no penalty. So, the ANC cannot re-invent itself.
A government change is not a strong possibility. There is probably a small chance of a coalition government made up of opposition parties, but that has a nearly zero percent chance of lasting.
What does South Africa need to solve the Eskom problem?
- An honest (non-corruptable) government.
- A party, or parties, that can convince the people to think long-term enough for the government to start solving the problem.
Why we will not solve the Eskom (or other) problems
The opposition parties are incapable of conveying clearly their solutions to the electorate.
The DA as the largest opposition party seems to cling to the idea of promoting the liberal philosophy. It is unimaginable that the present leader, John Steenhuizen could give a political speech in a squatter camp and be understood, never-mind believed.
ActionSA of Herman Mashaba uses Twitter (where small numbers of jobless people roam) to promote their views and activities and distribute T-shirts (a’la ANC) in townships. Their only promise to voters seems to be that they will be non-corruptable. This passes the practical problem that all potential governments have, and that is where they will find the honest people to run the government.
The EFF is based on anything that will get the leaders elected, and their fight against corruption does not extend to their own party, so they have much the same problem as the ANC. Both parties can only, as a last resort, count on shouting racism to cover for their own failures and keep the attention away from it.
Conclusion
It is quite possible that South Africa will never again have a government that is free from large-scale corruption.
That will eventually reduce the country to just another “African failure story”.
I suspect that democracy as a system is failing us big time, mainly because democracy is a system for people who think long-term, people who are able to accept pain today because they can see something better tomorrow. That is not something that illiterate people are able to do effectively.
Democracy, in a society driven by minute-to-minute decisions, will not work effectively in a system where people only express themselves every three or five years. I believe we can use technology, especially the algorithm, to give people more “say” in their affairs, as long as we devise a system based on how humans behave, and not depend on what they say they want, because they don’t know.