Mr President, we need a family meeting about Eskom!

“Hallo darkness my old friend.” 

For the last few days I have listened repeatedly to “Sounds of Silence”. Not the gentle Simon and Garfunkel version, but the angry, heavy metal interpretation by the American group, Disturbed .  

If you have battery and data, Google it next time the power goes off – it helps!

So, here we are again. In the dark more frequently than ever before and no…ahem.. light at the end of the tunnel. 

Not only are we on stage 6 daily, but according to Eskom we are only 2000KW away from stage 8. In case you’re wondering, that would mean no power for 13.5 hours per day or 48 hours over 4 days. 

Let me first say as politely as I can, how furious I am at all those responsible for this crisis. President Zuma’s lackeys, the Guptas, those who were in charge of Eskom and ran it into the ground and those who were supposed to have applied oversight and did nothing. I hope that every single one of you is charged  - not only for corruption - but also for treason, since you are responsible for bringing this country to its knees.

Of course, those who have been delaying the issuing of alternative energy licenses are also to be blamed. I won’t mention names, but you know the ones that have been mantashing between coal and solar. 

(Please excuse me for a minute, while I switch my wifi’s battery pack on – loadshedding just kicked in)

What bothers me most is the fact that the political leaders seem have no sense of the magnitude of the disaster. Or if they do, they are not taking us into their confidence.

Loadshedding is no longer just an inconvenience when it comes to cooking or sitting in the dark. Hospitals are without power, ATM’s are crashing, individuals who need power for medical equipment are suffering and small businesses are closing down. We are being told that further downgrades by rating agencies are inevitable and that this will bring further negative impact on foreign investment.

It is truly a national disaster. 

Yet, there has been no family meeting with the President. The Eskom spokesperson keeps telling us what the problems are and that they will keep us informed, and the responsible Minister tries to reassure us that things will improve…soon.

There are continued reports of striking workers blocking entrances to power stations and intimidating staff who turn up for work. (Of course, it is worthwhile remembering that Eskom workers are deemed essential workers who are legally not entitled to strike.

We are also told that the ongoing issues with maintenance have not improved and that deliberate acts of sabotage continue. The same stories we have heard for the last how many years!

So, let me speak on behalf of the nation and say to the political role players: “FFS!! FIX it!!”

Send in the army if you have to. If you could do it in the ganglands of the Western Cape, surely you can park a few vehicles with soldiers in front of the power stations to stop the intimidation of workers and to allow access?

Declare another state of disaster, if that is what it takes.  I doubt that anyone would complain if it means you actually solve the problem. Surely this is potentially as much of a disaster for the country’s economy and welfare as COVID ever was?

Place some trusted spies (I assume we still have some?) in Eskom to get to the bottom of the sabotage issue.

Change the procurement rules for Eskom, which Andre de Ruyter says is one of the biggest problems when it comes to maintenance. How difficult can it be? After all, it is not as if the current rules prevented large scale corruption in the past. 

I’m fully aware that this will not solve the fundamental rot, but at least it will alleviate some of the immediate pressures. 

Then, start being serious of about the future. FOCUS on alternative energy. Once and for all, stop with the nonsensical insistence that there is still a future for coal. If there had been a focused approach a few years ago to develop large scale green energy provisions (as many experts suggested) we would not be in this crisis today.

Instead vested interests prevailed. 

It is true that it will take 18 months for the energy providers who are already in the pipeline to make a difference, but there are smaller actions that can help immediately. 

For example,  assist those who can afford to install solar panels, by speeding up the approval process. In Cape Town it takes 5-6 weeks to get a solar installation approved (and I assume it would be the same in other municipalities). It also seems logical that the government should sponsor or subsidise the portion that makes it possible to feed excess power back into the grid. Currently, it adds around another R10 000 to an already hefty bill for the installation, which seems crazy.

Government should also cooperate with those who can generate alternative power. For example, a few years ago, I was told that farmers had enough solar capacity to prevent the country from reaching stage 4. However, they were getting no response from government when they offered help.

Government should also subsidise small solar panels for the townships – assuming that it can be done without large scale corruption. I’m fully aware that it will impact on the revenue of local authorities, but then again many are not functioning in any case, so I’m not sure it would make a big difference in the end. 

As with COVID it seems to me that every politicians and relevant civil servant should put everything else aside and deal with this crisis, since the country and her citizens don’t have much resilience left after the last two pandemic years. 

And now, I’m going to make some lukewarm tea from my little flask and listen to Disturbed on my phone while I wait for the power to come back on!