ESKOM or EKSDOM
The thinking at ESKOM is illogical as ESKOM now wants people to pay for their load shedding.
On Wednesday after hastily returning from Egypt, Pres. Ramaphosa told the nation that ESKOM was sabotaged. I recall former Minister Alec Erwin who also claimed ESKOM was sabotaged. Historically, we were never told who sabotaged ESKOM. So, the question remains, is our President being misled?
When ESKOM lost 2000 megawatts, the National Union of Mineworkers said that the Presidents account was unlikely since each boiler generated 600 megawatts. So, when 2000 megawatts were lost at least 3 boilers was off-line and not one, as alleged by the President.
The City of Cape Town has also repeatedly threatened the National Minister with court action demanding that Cape Town be allowed to buy electricity from other producers besides ESKOM.
Yet, to centralize control and maintain ideological politicism, rationality is subjected to the “will” of the national governments, who seems to behave like a selfish, spoilt child. In other words, while I am in charge, I will decide the rules, even if it is stupid and costs people their jobs and income.
Since few really know what is going on at ESKOM, perhaps Cape Town should consider separating its energy needs from ESKOM. This may require a fresh look at a localized grid. Since ESKOM is cursed with stupidity and corruption that will take many years to fix, we do not have the time to waste.
What is vital, is stronger federalized provinces like in the USA where each state can create its own law enforcement and energy systems. I am not suggesting secession but an exit from imposed folly.
As a past member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee of the City of Cape Town, I have attended enough conferences on energy production. There are many options available from the USA, Turkey, Russia, France and elsewhere. The Turks have a nuclear power station on a ship that can be floated into any harbor and plugged into the grid almost instantly. The USA have module reactors that can be build according to local needs and increased as the needs increase.
Our problem is, some of our leaders are greedy and stupid. So, there is a limited “energy” and “will” to govern responsibly. Taxpayers do not have time to wait until politicians realize their stupidity.
We cannot continue on the current trajectory; we need qualified people to manage our nation.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress