GOOD speech by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
05 May 2022
Note to editors: This was the speech delivered by GOOD Secretary-General and Member of Parliament, Brett Herron, during the debate of national importance on Eskom and continued blackouts.
Speaker,
As South Africa lurches into another spate of electricity failures – for which the current lot in charge of Eskom blames the previous lot, who blamed those before them – it is becoming increasingly clear that expertise is the critical intervention that is missing.
The rolling blackouts – which Eskom prefers to call loadshedding to create the impression that it is somehow in control of this disaster of its making – are accompanied by a roster of rolling excuses.
From sabotage to lack of maintenance, to wet coal, to State Capture…
When there weren’t any blackouts for a year or two, a few years ago, it was attributed by some to excellent engineering and maintenance interventions.
But others attributed this to Eskom burning unaffordable quantities of diesel to cover up the deficiencies and plunder of its power station fleet.
According to the Department of Public Enterprises and Eskom, at the time, South Africa was then managing to export large quantities of power to a number of neighbouring countries.
Today we don’t know how much diesel we’re burning, or if we’re still exporting electricity because the Department isn’t saying.
All we really know is that over the past three years there were more blackouts than ever before with 2021 being the worst year since 2007. By end of November 2021, we had 1136 hours of outages.
Four years after the alleged State Capture crowd were removed from power – Eskom’s performance was its most rotten in history.
If South Africa doesn’t have people with the necessary qualifications and expertise to fix Eskom and secure its assets the State must consider importing expertise from abroad.
Perhaps this is an area where our BRICS partners can help.
This is urgent. South Africa’s economy will remain listless for at least as long as potential investors don’t have the security of a stable power supply.
At the same time, last year’s announcement of accelerated power production by independent producers must take real shape and form.
This would provide us with a far greater sense of reassurance than the State’s efforts to foist Karpowerships on the country without public consultation.
Renewable energy production is no longer a futuristic concept: We are already doing it but must up our game.
Over time we this will enable us to reduce our dependence on Eskom while simultaneously reducing the carbon we spew into the atmosphere.
Instead of constantly squirming and retreading excuses to explain its inexplicably poor record, Eskom must take the nation into its confidence.
Tell the people what’s really going on, what you’re actually doing to address it, where you lack expertise and what help you need.
Media enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Samkelo Mgobozi, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0792315977 (WhatsApp)/0829684021 (calls)
Email: samm@forgood.org.za