It is absurd to blame De Ruyter for Eskom’s failure

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Andrew Kenny argues that what ruined Eskom was failed power plant construction in the 1990s, destructive racial policies such as affirmative action, BEE, executive deployment, equity and employment transformation, abysmal planning, poor power plant design choice, overstaffing, shoddy work and blatant incompetence; and finally massive corruption, ultimately culminating in outright crime and sabotage. It had nothing to do with Mantash’s wild claim that Eskom (i.e. De Ruyter) was actively agitating to overthrow the state. Simply put: De Ruyter was not allowed to touch on many of these issues and therefore could not resolve Eskom. The article below first appeared on the Daily Friend – Sandra Laurence

De Ruyter was not allowed to repair Eskom

By Andrew Kenny

When André de Ruyter resigned as CEO of Eskom last week, the EFF expressed the thinking of our political class. In an official statement, dated December 14, 2022, titled De Ruyters’ long-awaited resignation, the EFF said Eskom’s CEO is incompetent, arrogant and unhelpful and was never qualified to be appointed. at this post.

The EFF then explained to us how to solve the electricity disaster in South Africa. The EFF further calls for the suspension of all load shedding with immediate effect and the restoration of electricity to all households and commercial premises.

There you are! To solve our electricity problems, all we have to do is put on a red uniform, wave a magic wand, brandish an automatic rifle and order Heaven to end all load shedding with immediate effect! and it will be done.

The EFF is an integral part of our ruling elite. What is frightening about this is that his beliefs and policies are no different from those of many others in the ANC, SACP, trade unions and RET. When it was announced in 2019 that De Ruyter was to be Eskom’s new CEO, the EFF declared the appointment racist.

EFF leaders believe it is not racist for them to choose white teachers for their children, but it is racist for Eskom to choose white executives for its leadership. Many ANC and SACP leaders feel the same way. The EFF has described De Ruyter and Pravin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises, as among the Indian and white supremacists crippling our national assets.

The resignation of André de Ruyter is sad and worrying. He seems a decent, honorable and capable man with a good track record as an industrial manager. His main flaw was being terribly naive about the extent of ruin and corruption in Eskom, and the powers the ANC would give him to solve his problems. These powers were limited.

The ANC would not allow him to tackle Eskom’s deep structural problems. His brief was basically this: We order you to fix Eskom on the condition that you don’t fix Eskom. It took him a long time to realize this, and when he finally did, Eskom was in phase 6 of shedding and was hostage to fierce factional fighting within the ANC, culminating in the frenzy of his conference this week.

De Ruyter’s separate fault was his foolish belief that we should invest a lot of money in renewable energy (solar and wind), which proved a ruinous failure everywhere. Perhaps that is why he gave up refurbishing old coal-fired power plants.

Failure

Given the disgusting attacks on him from ruling politicians and the failure of the government and Eskom’s board to support him, De Ruyter had no choice but to resign. The worst attack on him came from a surprising source, Minerals and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.

Mantashe has been the government’s most sensible voice on our electricity supply. He emphasized the need for baseload electricity (reliable electricity at all times), which solar and wind power will never be able to provide. He said we had to be reasonable about reducing our dependence on coal, which has served us well in the past and which we have in abundance. But recently, in a burst of dementia, he said: By not dealing with load shedding, Eskom is actively agitating to overthrow the state.

It has been assumed, surely correctly, that he was referring to De Ruyter and essentially accusing him of treason. President Ramaphosa did not come to De Ruyters’ defense (although Pravin Gordhan did). He also accused De Ruyter of acting like a policeman who focuses on hunting down criminals.

Here’s what ruined Eskom: failed power plant construction in the 1990s, destructive racial policies such as affirmative action, BEE, executive deployment, employment equity and transformation, appalling planning, poor power plant design choice, overstaffing, shoddy workmanship and gross incompetence, and finally massive corruption, ultimately culminating in outright crime and sabotage. De Ruyter was not allowed to touch on many of these issues and therefore could not resolve Eskom.

Due to failed construction of power stations, South Africa ran out of electricity in 2007. A schoolboy, drawing a simple graph, could have predicted this in 1994. This caused devastating and permanent damage to our economy. Existing power plants have been destroyed in their effort to meet even the reduced demand. Maintenance has been neglected. Incompetent operators and maintenance staff caused further damage to our stations, which began to collapse. Accidents and breakdowns have increased. It got worse over the years.

The energy availability factor, which gives the percentage of power units available for production, has continued to decline. It was down before De Ruyter took over and, as expected, it went down again during his tenure. It is absurd to blame him.

Here is the only way to solve our electricity problem. It will take ten years or more. The first thing is to repair the existing Eskom fleet. This means spending large sums of money on maintenance and improving operations, which means employing only competent staff, regardless of race or party affiliation. The total workforce should be reduced by approximately 50%. Eskom, which generates around 90% of its electricity from coal, needs to source the best, cheapest, most reliable and environmentally friendly coal possible. This means cutting BEE’s coal supply, which is probably the main cause of Eskom’s debt and which has caused serious damage to Eskom’s power plants and the environment in Mpumalanga. Corruption and crime in Eskom must be eradicated.

Better technology

In the long term, we will only have the electricity supply necessary for a thriving economy if we build many new power plants. By far the best technology for this is nuclear. Wherever nuclear has been deployed with good management and political support as part of a sustained program, it has proven to be the cleanest, safest, most reliable and consistently affordable source of energy.

Koeberg, despite recent blunders, has provided our cheapest electricity for 38 years. Solar and wind energy are useless for grid electricity and should no longer be purchased. In the short term, we should have electricity wherever we can, provided it is reliable and costs us less than the cost of unserved electricity (electricity that fails to be delivered ), which is estimated at around 7,500 cents/R/kWh.

If diesel costs less and it costs a lot less, we should buy all the diesel we need. Similarly, motor ships powered by imported liquefied natural gas should be considered. If we can get gas from anywhere, we should burn it to generate electricity.

Unfortunately, De Ruyter was allowed to do little to fix Eskom. He was not allowed to drop affirmative action and make merit appointments. It was not allowed to cut costs and improve the performance of power plants by getting rid of BEE supply. President Ramaphosa himself is adamant about this: he strongly supports the BEE.

When ANC municipalities buy shoddy goods and services from BEE companies, and when their water supply breaks down and sewers flow in the streets where poor black people live, Ramaphosa always supports BEE. He insists that Eskom buy very expensive and very bad coal from BEE’s suppliers. It doesn’t matter that this coal ruins power plants and the environment. All that matters is that some wealthy, politically connected BEE coal owners are getting even richer. Enriching a few rich black people at the expense of many poor black people is, after all, the goal of BEE and transformation.

The legal BEE is naturally associated with the illegal BEE. Legal BEE insists that any company investing in a mine in South Africa must hand over 30% of its value to politically connected comrades or local leaders supporting the ANC. The next logical step is for the construction mafia, posing as local business forums, to murder any investor who doesn’t give them an extra 30%. Similarly, the legal supply of BEE coal naturally leads to coal theft, where criminals steal coal from trucks heading to Eskom and replace it with stones. Apparently, it has become a booming business.

When De Ruyter tried to stop this sort of thing, he was accused by Mantashe of acting like a policeman. I guess he should have looked away. ANC corruption and organized crime are becoming increasingly difficult to separate, as Jacque Pauw explains in detail in his new book, Our Poisoned Land. It looks like ANC politicians will attack anyone who tries to root him out.

EFF is delighted

De Ruyters’ resignation sparked lively celebrations. The EFF is delighted. NUMSA was overjoyed. Cosatu welcomed his resignation. Matshela Koko, the former interim CEO of Eskom who has been accused of fraud and corruption, welcomed De Ruyter’s resignation and now expects the load shedding to end in six to 12 months. (Where have I heard that before?)

If the best possible steps were taken, South Africa could have a good supply of affordable and reliable electricity in just over ten years. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that they will be caught. The De Ruyter episode confirms the grim prognosis.

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The opinions of the writer are not necessarily those of the Daily Friend or the IRR. If you like what you just read, support theDaily Friend.

Andrew Kenny is a classic writer, engineer and liberal

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