By Alec Hogg
Next to Vikings and butter, Denmark’s most famous export is the brilliant author Hans Christian Andersen. He had a wonderful way of entertaining while poking fun at those who needed it. My favourite Andersen story is the one about weavers who convinced the Emperor about their secret cloth that was only invisible to the stupid and incompetent. When the (buck naked) monarch paraded his splendid new suit the crowd nodded in awe until a young girl yelled “But he isn’t wearing anything.”
I get the feeling South Africans are finally waking up to a similar yarn about Eskom. Or, more specifically, damage wrought by meddling but ignorant politicians and their ruinous policy of cadre deployment – an insane approach where technical qualifications are trumped by party loyalty.
Over the weekend, Carte Blanche stripped away the veneer with its superb summation. Emboldened perhaps, yesterday three of my studio guests on CNBC Africa took the story further. Eskom, once the pride of global electricity generators, is now an unholy mess. Peter Major said it best when I asked whether the new (cadre deployed) CEO would help. It’s so far gone, he responded, that not even a divinely guided Moses or Noah could save it.
Is Major exaggerating? Doesn’t look like it. Dennis Dykes explained after five years, R300bn and 300% in price hikes, Eskom today produces less electricity than it did in 2009. Overlay the centralised control policy of an increasingly detached Government which believes it knows better, and all we can look forward to is more of the same. Unless, that is, the nation says no more. Shouts out “We’re gatvol”. Sick of incompetence, delays, empty promises and privileged snouts in the public trough. And points, like Andersen’s young lass, at a politically-driven illusion that is fooling fewer and fewer every day.
Yesterday’s top stories
Steinhoffâs drunk uncle: Distressed JD Group makes Jooste miss targets
Quizzing Brian Joffe: Has SAâs great capital allocator boobed on Adcock?
