Why South Africa’s Collapse Finally Came Down to Eskom

[Kamaji]

Why South Africa’s Collapse Finally Came Down to Eskom

The electricity utility sits at the intersection of politics, incompetence, and crime.

Helen Andrews
Mar 2, 2023

Could the collapse of South Africa, so long foretold by pessimists, finally be arriving? The United States government thinks it’s possible.

On February 15, the U.S. embassy in Pretoria advised Americans in South Africa to have at least seventy-two hours’ worth of food, water, medicine, and hygiene supplies in case of power outages, which have reached record levels in recent weeks, leaving users across the country without electricity for hours at a time. In January, the U.S. State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council held a meeting, which was leaked to journalists in an audio recording, to discuss the need to prepare for a total collapse of South Africa’s power grid.

These alarm bells come on the heels of the resignation of Andre de Ruyter as CEO of Eskom in December 2022, three years after he was brought in to lead the embattled utility with a mandate to tackle corruption and end rolling blackouts. Resistance to his efforts at the highest levels, including by cabinet politicians, made his job impossible, and “load shedding” (as the rolling blackouts are called) reached record levels in 2021. With nothing left to lose, last month De Ruyter gave an hour-long interview to journalist Annika Larsen where he spilled the whole sorry story of corruption at Eskom.

*  *  *

So electricity could be the pillar that finally brings the Rainbow Nation tumbling to the ground. Why Eskom? Because it sits at the intersection of the three themes of South Africa’s long decline: politics, incompetence, and crime.

*  *  *

Many South Africans simply refuse to pay their electricity bills, which is also a political problem. There is no way the ruling party would permit Eskom to cut off the vast majority of Soweto residents (around 80 percent) who don’t pay. Eskom therefore finds it impossible to collect the tens of billions of rand it is owed by delinquent customers. Even when it does attempt to cut off deadbeats, vandalism and illegal hookups render such measures futile. Any serious crackdown by Eskom on this rampant theft would doubtless be met with violence.

This would be a challenge even for the best managers, but Eskom’s managers are not the best. As a parastatal, Eskom is subject to aggressive diversity targets under Black Economic Empowerment laws. In 1995, its senior management was mandated to go from 70 percent white to 50 percent black by 1999 and 75 percent black by 2005. In 2008, Eskom’s head of human resources announced, “Over the next five years...Eskom has to appoint two new staff every day, and it is adamant that one of them will be a black woman.”

These targets were replicated across all sectors of the South African economy, and everywhere they have had the same effect: incompetence. Anthea Jeffery’s Bee: Helping or Hurting? documents multiple instances where people died because hospital administrators or water inspectors hired due to affirmative action were not qualified for their jobs. R.W. Johnson, the international press’s most widely read writer on South African affairs, has only one leg today because in 2009 he injured his foot swimming in a lagoon that proved to be polluted and the resulting infection required an amputation—just one more casualty of incompetence at the Department of Water Affairs.

*  *  *

Source:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/why-south-africas-collapse-finally-came-down-to-eskom/

[Fishrrman]

Seems to me that back when the whites gave up power in South Africa, they comprised around 23+/- percent of the population.

Today, I recall seeing a few days ago that the whites are now only about 7% of the population there, the rest having fled or in some cases been killed.

Those whites who remain had better make plans to get out quickly.
When the collapse comes, they're going to become targets.

South Africa may soon end up worse than Rhodesia. (I'm not interested in calling it by the other name).

[LMAO]

From the article….

This would be a challenge even for the best managers, but Eskom’s managers are not the best. As a parastatal, Eskom is subject to aggressive diversity targets under Black Economic Empowerment laws. In 1995, its senior management was mandated to go from 70 percent white to 50 percent black by 1999 and 75 percent black by 2005. In 2008, Eskom’s head of human resources announced, “Over the next five years...Eskom has to appoint two new staff every day, and it is adamant that one of them will be a black woman.”

These targets were replicated across all sectors of the South African economy, and everywhere they have had the same effect: incompetence. Anthea Jeffery’s Bee: Helping or Hurting? documents multiple instances where people died because hospital administrators or water inspectors hired due to affirmative action were not qualified for their jobs. R.W. Johnson, the international press’s most widely read writer on South African affairs, has only one leg today because in 2009 he injured his foot swimming in a lagoon that proved to be polluted and the resulting infection required an amputation—just one more casualty of incompetence at the Department of Water Affairs.

Does this sound eerily familiar?

[Kamaji]

From the article….

This would be a challenge even for the best managers, but Eskom’s managers are not the best. As a parastatal, Eskom is subject to aggressive diversity targets under Black Economic Empowerment laws. In 1995, its senior management was mandated to go from 70 percent white to 50 percent black by 1999 and 75 percent black by 2005. In 2008, Eskom’s head of human resources announced, “Over the next five years...Eskom has to appoint two new staff every day, and it is adamant that one of them will be a black woman.”

These targets were replicated across all sectors of the South African economy, and everywhere they have had the same effect: incompetence. Anthea Jeffery’s Bee: Helping or Hurting? documents multiple instances where people died because hospital administrators or water inspectors hired due to affirmative action were not qualified for their jobs. R.W. Johnson, the international press’s most widely read writer on South African affairs, has only one leg today because in 2009 he injured his foot swimming in a lagoon that proved to be polluted and the resulting infection required an amputation—just one more casualty of incompetence at the Department of Water Affairs.

Does this sound eerily familiar?

Yes indeed.

[LMAO]

Ability and competence should always come before box checking. I don’t care what race or gender you are. What should  matter is you’re able to do the job that you’ve been hired to do. That’s a concept that most people understand, except for those in the political class.

[bilo]

Seems to me that back when the whites gave up power in South Africa, they comprised around 23+/- percent of the population.

Today, I recall seeing a few days ago that the whites are now only about 7% of the population there, the rest having fled or in some cases been killed.

Those whites who remain had better make plans to get out quickly.
When the collapse comes, they're going to become targets.

South Africa may soon end up worse than Rhodesia. (I'm not interested in calling it by the other name).

When I was active in Panama real estate I remember seeing numerous Afrikaners (mostly white, but not exclusively) in Panama City. They were looking for farm land in the rural areas and did not want to buy in the city. I guess they saw the writing on the wall!