by Solly Moeng, first published by News24, edited by Roger Lilley

"Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state", South Africa's Mineral Resources and Energy Minister, Gwede Mantashe, has been reported as saying about the André de Ruyter-led Eskom, the state-run power utility. 

But it is not the outlandish nature of this foolish utterance that is most shocking but the fact that it seems to have failed to raise the ire of enough South Africans who have been observing developments around Eskom over the past two decades.

The utility has gone from almost total neglect by an ANC government that deliberately refused to heed warnings communicated to it in the late 1990s about the need to invest in additional power generation, through state capture and many other forms of corruption, sabotage from inside and outside, as well as the perennial, destructive, deployment of politically correct, yet totally ill-suited, sycophants at board and executive management levels at the utility. Government appointed twelve CEOs in as many years!

Over the same period, men and women who came with many years of solid engineering and management expertise needed to run the utility were sidelined, often based on reverse racism, and frustrated out of Eskom simply because they lacked requisite political pedigree and cover. No one gets appointed, and lasts, in the boards, executive and senior positions of South Africa's state-owned entities (SOEs) without some form of political blesser at whose beck and call they must remain, in exchange for protection. It's a form of corrosive political racketeering that has been normalised over time.  

As pointed out above, the genesis of the problems faced by Eskom is the political neglect of the late 1990s, under former president Mbeki, all underpinned by the kind of arrogance that former liberation fighters often display, driven by irrational African nationalism and disdain for anyone who was not in their political community.

Mantashe knows, but he is unlikely to admit, of course, that just like all other state institutions, South Africa's power utility is in its current sorry state because of many years of abuse under the watch of ANC ineptitude. He also knows, and doesn't seem to care, that whatever his alleged inabilities, De Ruyter inherited and had to deal with a litany of ongoing corrupt activities at Eskom with no political support from the people who employed him and then threw him to the dogs.

On one hand, value-extracting, rent-seeking middlemen and -women play all kinds of roles, often aided by politically deployed enablers in the utility's procurement department and elsewhere to over-charge for services and parts. And, on the other hand, some of those already in the supply chain maintain their presence there through systemic acts of sabotage, ensuring the occurrence of regular machinery breakdowns that require constant repair or supplies by the companies they're connected to.

It also hasn't helped that De Ruyter "committed the sin of being born white" in a country where reverse racism ensures that whenever he attempts to remove the cancer of criminality from standing in the way of Eskom's recovery or to introduce mechanisms that would render corrupt acts difficult – such as the barcode system to prevent parts being stolen and resold back to Eskom – he gets the dreaded "race card treatment". As a result, De Ruyter must dare not act against anyone who happens to be black, even if that person is either ill-suited for the job or corrupt.

Sadly, whatever their skin colour, whoever will take over from De Ruyter will not be spared if they dare attempt to deal with any of the obstacles faced by him. It is no wonder many self-respecting, reputation-conscious, yet suitably qualified black professionals have rejected the Eskom job.

It is clear in the end that Eskom will not recover while Mantashe and his comrades continue pressing their knees down on its neck.

Read the original version here: https://www.news24.com/fin24/opinion/solly-moeng-its-mantashe-and-his-comrades-who-must-go-20221222