GOOD statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
1 July 2022
There’s no point in debating Eskom’s poor performance in parliament, again. Its inabilities are common cause.
Eskom is floundering in ideological quicksand, at the mercy of factionalised and incompetent rescue crews who can’t agree how to fix it.
While wildcat strikes may have contributed to the severe schedule of blackouts presently being experienced, it is indecisive and incompetent leadership that has led us into the mire and ensures we remain stuck.
For Eskom to work requires leaders capable of navigating the divide between believers and non-believers in the privatisation of electricity supply and distribution.
It requires accelerating the development of renewable energy generation, while mitigating the knock-on costs to the existing coal economy and its dependants.
It requires weighing up the best sustainable interests of the country when it comes to the uptake of gas, the possible construction of another nuclear power station, the rental of power-ships…
These are deeply divisive issues.
Our political leaders’ failure to confront them, and make hard but necessary decisions in the best interest of the country, assures Eskom’s continuing failure.
Technology capable of supplementing our power generation and stabilising supply, relatively quickly, exists in the world and is available to us.
South Africa cannot afford to have its Ministers of Energy and Public Enterprises not on the same hymn sheet – while Eskom spends billions of Rands on diesel to keep the lights on for a couple of hours a day.
What would be more useful, than another debate in parliament, would be for the President and relevant ministers to provide the urgent leadership needed for Eskom to have a hope of emerging from the quicksand and stop the situation from driving the country to bankruptcy.
Casting blame on labour, saboteurs or state capturers doesn’t fix the problem.
GOOD calls on the State to provide the leadership of Eskom and the country, for which it was elected, cast factional issues of the ruling party aside, and, in the immediate-term, leverage its membership of BRICS to request the deployment of more skilled power station operators and engineers than those Eskom can evidently provide.
Media enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za