Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe. Photo: Felix Dlangamandla/Gallo
Wednesday.
Like the majority of my fellow South Africans, I had also been wondering who the government — and the ANC — was going to blame for the failure of Eskom to provide us with electricity for the last 15 years now that André de Donker has bailed as the entity’s chief executive.
After all, De Donker and his doppelganger, Jan de Donkerder, had been pretty much tailor-made for the job — or at least for the fall guy part of it — given that they generated far more drama than electricity during their rather disastrous tenure.
Neither De Donker nor De Donkerder was ever going to save us, and not just because of the depth of the mess at Eskom and their personal skill sets.
White men have, for centuries, been a bit of a problem in this part of the world — think colonialism, apartheid and tigers roaming in Walkerville — so expecting the Twins of Darkness to provide a solution to our electricity crisis was, frankly, unscientific and more than a little ahistorical.
That said, neither twin is out the door at Megawatt Park yet, but the comrades are already identifying new targets for the electricity blame game and have — not for the first time — turned on each other.
Things are getting crazy.
The head of state, Cyril Ramaphosa, blames — predominantly — his predecessor, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma and the Nine Wasted Years gang for the collapse of Eskom.
Fair enough.
uBaba was a fingers-in-the-till kind of president who didn’t waste time when it came to letting the dogs loose on the electricity generation and reticulation entity, so Ramaphosa isn’t entirely wrong.
The comrades in parliament — who face the horrible prospect of joining the unemployment queue if the ANC loses its majority in 2024 — are blaming the comrades in government — and those deployed at Eskom — for the mess and hauled them before the caucus this week.
According to the ANC’s parliamentary contingent, the public enterprises minister, Pravin Gordhan, and the Eskom team are “sabotaging” their campaign for another five years on the gravy train and need to sort the power problem pronto.
Harsh, but not entirely untrue, and a sentiment echoed by the nation’s energy minister, Gwede Mantashe, whose department is, we are told, to be given control of Eskom as part of the solution to our problem.
Mantashe isn’t safe himself.
Not satisfied with blaming Gordhan, Eskom and Zuma, some of the comrades have turned their attention to Old King Coal for failing to come up with a plan that has translated into a single watt of actual electricity since he was given the job.
Not untrue, and a pretty clear indication of what will happen should Mantashe remain in the energy ministry and get control of Eskom, a poisoned chalice — or should we say coffee cup — of a public entity.
Mantashe says he is no electrician and doesn’t build power stations for a living and that he’s only there to sign off on policy and projects and not to run Eskom — yet.
True, but about as helpful as a bullet in the head.
On the ground, the comrades may or may not be marching on Luthuli House, depending on who is talking on their behalf, as they, like their leaders, run out of external excuses and start to blame each other, but not themselves.
We are led.
Like many of my fellow South Africans, I’ve also been wondering why the head of state stayed at home to address the latest electricity crisis, rather than going to the World Economic Forum in Davos with the rest of Team SA.
Ramaphosa appears to have dodged the suits in Davos just to hang about in Mzansi and dodge the rest of us — and another legal bullet fired at him by his predecessor — instead of addressing the nation about how he and his team plan to get the lights back on.
While Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is promising the world that load-shedding will be a thing of the past within 12 months, Ramaphosa is making invisible at home as well as abroad as we bounce from stage six blackouts to stage four and back again without a whisper from the commander-in-chief.
Perhaps Ramaphosa dodging Davos isn’t that much of a surprise.
Hiding in the house is a pretty good way to avoid embarrassing questions from the bosses from up north about the dollars in the couch — and the failure to implement last year’s promises — while continuing to avoid looking the punters at home in the eye.
We are indeed led … astray.
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