A parasitic evil at work
Good people do not need laws to tell them to behave, bad people will find a way around the laws.
Some of our leading political and business elites, has a serious disrespect for ordinary people.
ESKOM sells electricity to Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe whilst locals suffer load shedding. We must ask, why ESKOM sells electricity to other nations when locals have insufficient electricity?
The answer is simple. ESKOM is not loyal to our nation as it serves a political and business minority.
This elite uses ESKOM to profit and do not care if a business that feeds a few families will survive. Those who control ESKOM do not care if we have electricity to study or eat or clean ourselves.
For a year, we were in lockdown and our economy stalled as joblessness increased to 50%. ESKOM has the crude audacity to increase electricity by 20% and load-shed, when the lockdown is relaxed.
At the Commission on State Capture, former ESKOM leader Brian Molepe accused the President of placing self-interest above our national interest. It is evident that, we pay more, for less electricity.
Paying more will not help load-shedding since those who profit at ESKOM do not care about the service. Their greed is driven by profit and not solving the problem which existed for a decade.
So, what is the solution to load-shedding and increasing cost on electricity?
We have a few options.
We could fire all the unusable people and try and stop the corruption, at ESKOM. This is unlikely.
We could federalize the grid and sever ties with a national ESKOM HQ and reform the regional grids. We could switch to a mixture of oil, gas, wind and solar etc. We could also relook at modular nuclear energy or a mixture of whatever works. Essentially, energy must become a regional political concern.
This will be a costly fight as the wealthy are already somewhat off the grid. They have battery facilities installed at their properties etc. Thus, they are not impacted that heavily by ESKOM and may not need change. Those who profit at ESKOM will use their political links to prevent progress.
A simpler solution submits we change our national political leadership and remove the parasites at ESKOM. Change is vital, as a parasite by its nature must be physically removed at all cost for the host to survive. If not, parasites ultimately kill the host and move to another host. We have limited time.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress