Last weekend, with the country in the grip of its umpteenth bout of stage 6 electricity blackouts, minister of mineral resources & energy Gwede Mantashe thought it advisable to lecture South Africans.
“Eskom must do introspection,” said Mantashe without irony. “Do we have the capacity, technically, to deal with the crisis? If not, can we go out and look for that capacity? If we don’t do that, it will be a very complex problem. It will take us six to 12 months to sort the issue if we pay attention to the issue.”
This is extraordinary. Mantashe became minister of energy in May 2019 when it was merged with his mineral resources portfolio, making him one of the most powerful ministers in the cabinet. In the four years since then, as energy expert Anton Eberhard pointed out in the Sunday Times, Mantashe has failed to deliver “a single publicly procured megawatt that is generating electricity for the grid”. Four years. Zero new supply. The man is an utter failure.
This windbag says Eskom must do some introspection. He says it would take six months to sort out the issue “if we pay attention”. What has he been doing these past four years? He has been sleeping on the job.
It is generally acknowledged that Mantashe is responsible for the departure of Eskom CEO André de Ruyter. De Ruyter resigned in December after Mantashe accused Eskom of “agitating for the overthrow of the state” by not dealing with load-shedding. Mantashe had previously said De Ruyter should be replaced with someone who has technical capabilities and said the Eskom CEO was like a “policeman” who was focused on pursuing criminals.
So, after failing to help fix Eskom since he became energy minister in 2019, Mantashe has now achieved everything he wants. He has in place a new board of directors, which will soon report directly to him. He will likely be involved in appointing a new CEO to replace De Ruyter in March. He has the ANC pushing for Eskom to be fully in his control by moving it from the public enterprises ministry to his energy portfolio.
That should change things. Not.
So the idea that Mantashe has a magic wand of some sort is poppycock. He and his colleagues in the ANC have no idea what they are talking about
First, it is a myth that an ANC minister will swoop in and “take charge” at Eskom and things will be hunky-dory. The solution to Eskom’s problems is professionalism.
Professionals in energy supply approached Nelson Mandela’s administration in 1998 and said the country needed to increase generation capacity. Politicians said they knew better and refused to provide the money to build new power stations.
The Thabo Mbeki administration fiddled as the problem got worse. Political interference, corruption and sloth at Eskom went into overdrive under Jacob Zuma. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “new dawn” continued along the same path of interference. In all that time, no-one listened to the professionals.
So the idea that Mantashe has a magic wand of some sort is poppycock. He and his colleagues in the ANC have no idea what they are talking about. Their record, from Ramaphosa to Mantashe, speaks for itself. They should step aside and allow a professional board and skilled executive team to fix Eskom.
Second, what is the role of the new board at Eskom, exactly, when Mantashe and company are scapegoating the CEO and holding forth about how long it will take to fix the entity?
Mantashe’s numerous statements on Eskom have put this new board in a terrible position. It is akin to the shareholder shouting at it to change course just three months after its appointment, without having given it parameters. The shareholder has compromised this board already by showing that Mantashe is in charge. Mpho Makwana, the new chair, is just a figurehead.
Today, one is reminded of former Eskom board member Busi Mavuso. In April last year, when the previous board was accused of failing to deal with Eskom’s problems, she told a parliamentary committee: “What we will not agree to, in spite of the challenges we are facing as an organisation … is to have this board and André [de Ruyter] as the fall guy for the mess that this organisation is currently experiencing.”
She was right. The ANC made this mess. It cannot fix it. Mantashe’s presence in the mix will make things infinitely worse.
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