Thank you to the many people who reacted to my column last week on Eskom and the latest load shedding!
I would also like to thank the people who took my request seriously and drove past the ministerial houses in Pretoria when there was load shedding.
I'm sure it would not come as a surprise to anyone that, according to all reports, they were not in the dark – well, at least not literally.
No, while the rest of us were eating cold food, they (or more likely their staff members) were still happily cooking on their electric stoves under bright electric bulbs.
SHAME on you guys!
Although I try not to write about the same topic twice in a row I think it is important to revisit this issue again.
Of course on the day my column was published, the President decided to return to South Africa and finally address the nation about the crisis.
I would love to take credit for that as some of you suggested, but I’m sure he took the decision on his own.
After meeting with the Eskom top management, he had a lengthy press conference.
Understandably the journalists were not mincing their words and they sharply criticized the government and the President.
I have to give credit to the President for the manner in which he handled it. It was tough and he was clearly taking strain (he wiped his face in Nathi Nhleko-style a couple of times).
Yet, he smiled at the aggressive journalists and tried to answer the questions. Now if this was Trump, almost all the journalists would have been insulted or evicted by the end of the presser.
Yet, it worried me that the President still did not look like he was on top of things.
He announced various steps, such as cancelling leave for senior staff, but as journalists rightly pointed out, all these measures had been announced before and nothing had changed.
In addition (as I wondered about in my column) the President admitted that sabotage had played a role. He would not say much more except that they were investigating the matter.
Even though he spoke at length, one was left with the impression that there was more to the whole crisis than they were admitting.
After the President and politicians left the press conference, some of the managers of Eskom took over.
That is when it got a lot more interesting.
Amongst them was COO of Eskom, Jan Oberholzer.
Earlier that morning I had listened to a discussion between Oberholzer and Kieno Kammies on CapeTalk.
Then and again at the press conference I was surprised and impressed by his frankness and honesty. He spoke at length about the difficulties faced by Eskom and explained what had led up to Stage 6 being implemented.
"It was a perfect storm," he concluded.
He and the other managers looked exhausted and truly upset. I could not help thinking that if only we had known the detail a few days earlier, the nation would have been far more accepting and understanding about the crisis.
Courageously, Oberholzer did not hesitate to talk about the capture of Eskom and the difficulty of trying to eradicate corruption in the organisation.
He also made it clear that although sabotage played a major role, it was not the only reason for Stage 6 load shedding.
Many factors contributed to the "perfect storm"…