It could well be that Eskom is the ANC’s main opposition in this election. But load-shedding while the ANC is on the campaign trail marks a dramatic shift — a positive one, for the country at least. It shows that the government, Eskom’s shareholder, has shifted from an "interfering" approach towards Eskom operations, at least when it comes to postponing necessary load-shedding or maintenance ahead of an election.
It should have always been this way, but the temptation to fiddle — mostly for the purpose of rent-seeking and extraction — was too strong for former president Jacob Zuma and his lieutenants, and the ANC today is reaping the whirlwind. Evidence of a shift in the government’s stance is clear in the response to questions around load-shedding by Deputy President David Mabuza, who heads the Eskom "war room", during a campaign appearance in Ekurhuleni on Tuesday.
"Generally I understand the problems of Eskom to be the maintenance of these plants — they are old, they can break at any time," he said. "You can’t plan for this maintenance, it just happens and as it happens it disrupts the service, and it’s then that Eskom management must take a proactive decision to manage the load … because of unplanned breakages."
Asked whether he was worried that the power outages would harm the ANC’s showing in the polls on Monday, he said: "Well, it is affecting our campaign because people are complaining about electricity. I am just crossing my fingers that Kusile and Medupi must come online fully and that will improve our situation a bit, but of course we also have all these independent power producers coming online and I am sure that will also have a positive effect."
The FM understands that neither Mabuza nor Pravin Gordhan, minister of public enterprises, has meddled in Eskom management decisions to implement load-shedding, despite the pall that power cuts cast over the ANC’s image.
Neither Mabuza nor Gordhan has meddled in Eskom decisions to implement load-shedding
The party may have been hands-off at national level, but ANC officials at regional level and in the City of Joburg have been more anxious. The party is at risk of once again losing the country’s biggest-budget metro to a coalition, as it did in 2016 before regaining control due to DA infighting.
With an eye on the elections, the City of Joburg announced at the beginning of October that Soweto — a huge ANC voting bloc — would no longer receive power from Eskom but from City Power, an entity run by the metro. This was premature as talks on the issue had not been finalised. Then the ANC regional leadership announced that load-shedding was a thing of the past because the city had approached the privately owned Kelvin power station to procure capacity. Again, this was "totally wrong", according to sources, and the ANC in the region had to withdraw its statement.
The most recent embarrassment for the city was its announcement last week that it will not switch off the lights despite the resumption of stage 2 load-shedding. This would have been illegal and a series of high-level meetings were held between Eskom and City Power. It is understood that national leaders intervened and Joburg mayor Mpho Moerane received a dressing down for his defiance.
The ANC’s desperation in Joburg is palpable. The party is now learning that it cannot do things the same way over and over again and expect a different result. The lesson of these elections for the ANC is that it needs to fast-track energy reforms and Eskom’s turnaround.
Perhaps then the generation of South Africans who have grown up with load-shedding as the norm — it has been part of our lives for 14 years — may see it finally come to an end.
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