Comment
Eskom’s
rot runs deep
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@LeonLouw3
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A
s we all know, the decay at Eskom set in a long
time ago, long before the Guptas — with the
assistance of their politically connected partners
— started thrashing assets in the Witbank coal basin. It
began when those responsible for procuring coal at Eskom,
and certain coal suppliers, started colluding about prices
and how to bypass quality checks. The Guptas obviously
perfected the art, but they didn’t invent it. But it is easy to
point fingers. We now have the advantage of hindsight —
we are sort of connecting the dots. But questions remain.
The problem is that everybody who today knows what
the cabal was cooking up then, knew it at the time, too. I
visited a host of coal mining operations during the height
of the Gupta/Zwane reign, and I spoke to many people on
the ground. All of them knew, or at least suspected, that
systems and processes were bypassed to give preference
to politically connected suppliers. The most infamous of
these, of course, being Tegeta’s Optimum Mine, where the
Guptas, with the assistance of the then minister of mining,
Mosebenzi Zwane, rode roughshod over procurement
policies and business ethics.
During this time, I also visited a few coal testing
laboratories. These labs are responsible for testing coal
quality and for making sure that the coal supplied
to power stations comply with exactly the correct
specifications. When boilers at these power stations are fed
inferior-quality coal, or rather coal outside of the required
specifications, they break (it is of course not that simple,
but I don’t want to go into too much technical detail now).
This results in downtime, as Eskom experienced recently,
and the consequent introduction of load-shedding.
Technicians and scientists at the testing labs knew that
the coal they were testing were not up to standard. When
they refused to sign off these deliveries, they were harassed,
threatened, and their houses broken into. Some of them
were brave, spoke out, and lost their jobs. Others, under
extreme pressure, signed the consignments and, against
their will, became part of the rot.
To turn Eskom around will require a gargantuan effort,
but the secret of getting it right starts at small technical
details like these and by bringing back the skills and the
knowledge they lost during the days of plunder. The key,
though, is to get rid of the corrupt that are still within
their ranks. The rot didn’t magically disappear when the
Guptas fled. The saddest part of the entire mess is that
people who knew what was going on, did not or could
not blow the whistle, for various reasons. Some feared
for their lives and livelihoods, others did it for political
reasons — which brings me to the most nagging question
of all: How much does President Cyril Ramaphosa
know? He has to know something. After all, Jacob Zuma
appointed him, then deputy president, to lead the war
room tasked with finding solutions to Eskom’s woes. That
was in December 2014.
Ramaphosa was asked this question by Pieter
Groenewald, parliamentary leader of political party
Freedom Front Plus, in the National Assembly recently,
to which Ramaphosa replied: “I found that there were
too many entry points into Eskom … and that I could
not get my arms around Eskom.” Not long after Zuma
appointed him, he recommended that it would be better
if Zuma appointed a CEO for the company who could be
held accountable for its operations. That CEO was Brain
Molefe, and we all know what happened to him.
I went digging through old press releases during that
time, and I came across this one issued by Government in
March 2015. My oh my, doesn’t it sound familiar. Here is
the full verbatim release, which you can read, weep about,
decide how much you knew, and like me, wonder if you
should have said something before.
“Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa today, Wednesday 18 March
2015, announced in the National Assembly, the names of the
advisory panel he has appointed to advise him on matters regarding
the turn-around of Eskom.
Members of the Advisory Panel include Professor Anton
Eberhard, Ms Dolly Mokgatle, Mr Bobby Godsell, Ms Sy Gourah,
Mr Smunda Mokoena and a sixth person with organised labour
background will be joining the panel soon.
The Advisory Panel has been working with the technical teams
working in the government’s War Room.
Deputy President Ramaphosa was responding to questions in
the National Assembly which focused among others, on steps that
government is undertaking to address the electricity challenges
facing the country.
In this context, Deputy President Ramaphosa informed
the National Assembly that various interventions are being
implemented to address the electricity supply constraints including
the prioritisation of maintenance of all power stations.
To assist the Deputy President lead the turn-around process, he
has appointed this Advisory Panel to provide an independent view
on the effectiveness of the measures proposed to turn around Eskom.
The Deputy President believes that there is no short-cut to the
challenges facing Eskom, hence the need to develop short, medium
and long-term solutions that are independently verifiable by people
with expert knowledge of the energy sector.
The Advisory panel appointed by the Deputy President on
Eskom is different from the Ministerial Council on Energy whose
members will be announced soon by the Ministry of Energy.”
Leon
Editor
MAY 2019 MINING MIRROR [1]