February 8 to 14 2008

Let’s stop the madness!

Can Africa get it right? I ask this question as another African country, Chad, is in turmoil in the same old story of power and greed. It joins Kenya in a long list of countries that are tainting Africa’s image.

Hardly a month into the new year and the continent is already in flames. How do we expect to make this an African century if African countries are in shambles?

The world is laughing at us and Africans must accept responsibility for the mess.

Violence, poverty and poor leadership are Africa’s barriers to economic growth. Leaders might have rigged the elections in Kenya, but it is ordinary people who are burning their country down.

We saw the same anarchy in Khutsong, where shops were looted. Why do we always turn to violence to solve our problems? Africa’s obsession with violence has to end.

Not long ago a Cosatu leader promised that ”blood will be spilt” if Jacob Zuma is charged. Is this the Africa we want to build, torn apart by bloodshed and mayhem? Do we always need the West to be our nanny?

New leaders do not seem to bring new vision and the African Union has not made much impact. Robert Mugabe is still a dictator. In Nigeria, one of the most corrupt countries in the world, the new President, Umaru Yar’Adua, has dismissed Nuhu Ribado, its most effective corruption tzar.

At home the new ANC leadership is hell-bent on dismantling the Scorpions, the top crime-busting unit. This is a twisted irony, given that crime is the country’s biggest problem.

Why, instead of changing things for the better, do African leaders make them worse? Why this selfish need to serve their own interests, rather than those of the people?

When will Africa stop this self-destruction and become a world leader, instead of world beggar? Where is the continent’s voice of reason?

I want to see Africa succeed and make news for the right reasons. Our chaotic and unstable continent is chasing its most talented and brightest young people away. Let’s stop this madness! — Lucas Ntyintyane, Cresta

Blackouts are everyone’s future

We are told South Africa’s energy crisis will not be resolved for up to nine years. For it to be resolved, two new coal-fired power stations and most likely an additional nuclear one must first come on stream.

In the panicky preoccupation with energy supply, it seems global warming and climate change are falling by the wayside.

These limitations will harshly — and possibly fatally, within the confines of ever-growing capitalist economies — circumscribe the world’s room for manoeuvre.

The Kyoto Protocol is a pitiful fig leaf with which to hide our profligate and plainly unsustainable (ab)use of fossil fuels. And when it expires in 2012, there will have to be a much tougher regime that applies to all countries, if civilisation is to survive.

This will not work in South Africa’s favour, considering that in per capita terms it is among the worst global polluters and will be liable for substantial emissions reductions.

In this context maybe praise should be given to the government and Eskom for giving us advance notice of what to expect.

The only viable long-term solution for South Africa, and the world, is to institute a steady-state economy capable of satisfying reasonable human needs, not wanton greed.

”Sustainable economic growth” is a pipe dream indulged in by those who benefit comfortably from the current, grossly inequitable, status quo.

To safeguard continued human life on the planet, there will have to be fair global and local redistribution of already created wealth and an end to further population growth. All else is fiddling while Rome burns. — I Brezovi Mlinari, Halfway House

Eskom says it has a 4 000MW to5 000MW shortage, while private companies, especially large manufacurers like Illovo, have spare capacity and have offered it to the utility at market-related prices.

Current private sector generating potential amounts to 5 000MW and Eskom has now extended the request for interest until May.

This is the wrong approach. We have a crisis now and should have a dual plan: use the current market offers immediately to expand Eskom’s delivery capability and commission new plants as soon as possible.

The average availability of Eskom’s power plants is 85%, with the highest a meagre 87%. It has a shortage of more than 400 qualified engineers and thousands of technicians — there are just not enough qualified people to support its expansion plan.

The morale at all power plants is terrible, with people not being motivated and incentivised to help solve the problems. A proper focus on people and incentives could raise production by perhaps 10%.

Yet the Eskom top dogs have received R57-million in bonuses and total pay of R135-million paid out in the past three years. — WPL

People say the projected Grand Inga Dam on the Congo River can produce enough electricity for the whole of Africa. Untrue.

The scheme will produce a maximum of 370 terawatt/hours annually. In 2005 Africa produced 550twh, with South Africa producing 42% of this.

With economic growth averaging 5%, Africa between the tropics might have to double electricity production in the next decade, meaning that in the 2020s the continent will need to produce at least 1 000twh.

In meeting energy demand there is no room for emotion. Germany is trying to quell nuclear energy because of public pressure, but the public is not always right. Political interests and the desire to win elections at any cost can lead to poor decisions.

There are many signals that, to develop the world, more use of nuclear power is inevitable.

South Africa should think about adding at least 10 nuclear power plants of 1GW each during the next decade and contribute to funding international research on thermonuclear energy. — Kizito Mwanga, Philadelphia, United States

To rectify the crisis I suggest that it be made law for everyone to reduce consumption by 20%. Performance could be monitored via the billing system and enforced by Eskom investigators, who would take account of a genuine inability to reduce consumption and offer advice on energy economies.

This would include advice on shifting to low-energy light bulbs; reducing the number of bulbs in over-illuminated homes and buildings; fitting geyser timers and daylight timer switches; and switching stoves from electiricity to gas, which should be mandatory for restaurants.

Eskom could also create an 0800 number for people to report electricity abusers. — Harold J Kierstead, Stellenbosch University

We will reclaim Zimbabwe

‘Mugabe’s election ruse”, claimed a Mail & Guardian article last week. Did anyone think Robert Mugabe was going to postpone elections? Not me. Why would he give the opposition a chance to win, however remote that might be?

Mugabe’s sole ambition is to be life president; the people of Zim­babwe and their sympathisers around the world should have learned that by now.

If Morgan Tsvangirai thought he could negotiate with Mugabe, he’s more gullible than I thought. He’s not brutal enough to unseat Mugabe.

Mugabe does not negotiate with anyone and for the African Union to send Thabo Mbeki on a futile mission shows an alarming lack of vision.

Mbeki believes in quiet diplomacy — doing and saying nothing and hoping things will resolve themselves.

How was Mugabe going to react to Mbeki’s diplomacy? By telling him he was in diapers when he (Mugabe) was fighting the Ian Smith regime and frothing at the mouth while blaming the British for all our problems.

Or do African leaders want the situation to remain as it is? They benefit from the economic chaos, as Zimbabweans shop every­where but in their own country. Suddenly, other African countries can have the finest of Zimbab­wean skills for a song — teachers, nurses, doctors and the rest.

The British provided funds for land reform in the 1980s and Joshua Nkomo took up the issue. He got nowhere because there was no ­government interest.

Mugabe, then prime minister, was mainly worried about Nkomo taking the leadership from him. He was busy planning his assault on the Ndebele, while youths were running around attacking anyone not attending Zanu-PF rallies. And you thought it all started in 2000.

The word democracy cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Mugabe. But we will reclaim our country. We will. — Shepherd, Bulawayo

Report seeks to embarrass

There are inaccuracies in the report on the resignation of Professor Sakhela Buhlungu (January 25). You incorrectly state that Buhlungu is head of sociology, a position he resigned in mid-2007.

You further erroneously state that the university did not act against a staff member who went absent without leave. In fact, he was recalled to the university and the matter was dealt with according to procedures.

Late last year the vice-chancellor established an independent commission of inquiry into Buhlungu’s resignation. As it has not yet reported, it would be inappropriate to comment further.

There is concern about unsubstantiated statements in your article attributed to members of the university, designed to embarrass individuals and bring the university into disrepute. — Shirona Patel, head of communications, Wits University

As head of department at the Wits School of Social Sciences, I take exception to your ill-informed, unsubstantiated and biased attack.

While Buhlungu might have been piqued at not getting his way in a disciplinary case, he and other staff mentioned in the piece all resigned to pursue opportunities elsewhere and not because as Africans they suffered disabilities at Wits.

Wits struggles with transformation in a generally committed and transparent way. To crudely play the race card, then slide down the slippery slope of xenophobia with the ”foreigner card”, is gutter journalism. — David Coplan

Discourteous

I object to the opening gambit in Khadija Bradlow’s piece on the ”Paradoxes of the postcolonial sphere” conference (February 1), which is distressing in its inaccuracies and discourteous in its presentation of Professor Shireen Hassim.

My memory of the incident is very different to Bradlow’s. Hassim explained to Bradlow and the conference organiser that it was not her policy to do interviews and all seemed perfectly amiable.

Since Bradlow did not seem interested in speaking to us we went on talking and drinking our coffee. I had not realised drinking coffee was such a politically loaded act. — Natasha Erlank, director, Centre for Culture and Language in Africa,University of Johannesburg

Govt’s double standards

I find it fascinating that the South African government has done all it can to not ruffle the feathers of Robert Mugabe through its ”quiet diplomacy” on Zimbabwe, but did not hesitate to react against the Kenya government over its bad handling of Cyril Ramaphosa.

I find this very much in bad taste. Both Mugabe and Kibaki had very questionable elections. Mugabe gets the quiet treatment and the Kibaki government is not recognised. Some double standards here by the South African government; we either support vote rigging or we do not! — Wayne Harris, Nairobi, Kenya

A 10111 disaster

I had the misfortune to have had to call 10111 several times. The object of my calls is not important here, but I found the operators woefully undertrained, unaware of geography within Johannesburg (”Where’s that? Is that in Johannesburg?”), unskilled (Me: ”B as in Betty!”/Operator: ”So I spell it D … ”) and rude (I muttered something under my breath during one of the calls, the stress of the situation aggravated by my frustration with the operator. Operator: ”You too!” Me: ”Excuse me?” Operator: ”I don’t know what you say [sic], but same to you!”).

Several of the operators (I spoke to at least five different ones) also found my frustration amusing. I found the chuckles unnerving considering the gravity of the situation I was reporting. They were also remarkably slow, such that I often spoke the words: ”Hello? Are you still there?” to which the equally often reply was: ”Yes, I’m just checking, hold.”

(I am reminded of the time in 1998 when I lived in a much worse area than which I currently reside, when men were trying to break into my home with myself inside. I called 10111 breathlessly, and within 15 minutes they had arrived. In fact, in my mind’s eye, I can still see the white, unmarked VW swing into view, sirenless, out of which two burly police officers in plain clothes jumped out before the car had come to a complete halt. They were at my door within seconds after that.)

To return to 2007: at last, wholly numbed now by the operators’ collective unprofessionalism to the fact that this was an emergency lifeline for people in life-threatening situations, I demanded of one operator why such a poor service was being provided. He replied haplessly that because call volumes were so high, calls in my area were now being rerouted to them who: a) were not police officers but call-centre agents, similar to the type of person who sells insurance over the telephone (better make that life insurance!); and b) previously had only serviced the Soweto area — as such, they were unfamiliar with Johannesburg’s geography in general.

I cannot think of what would happen if my life or that of a loved one was at stake and I called 10111. The lesson, which I have now learnt quite decisively (and to hell with the faux optimism and damn the jeers at Perth packers) is that my life, my security and my electricity — things that people in many other countries not only take for granted, but on which they also correctly rely on elected government to provide — in this country become my personal responsibility.

I am going to buy a gun and a generator. I hate both, but how else will I keep body and soul together? — The Eternal Optimist

Feeble-minded excuses

How can Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin say that South Africa is the same as other developing countries as far as the energy crisis is concerned? The energy crisis in South Africa is completely due to bad planning and lack of foresight.

Even I, an old lady, could manage to work out that if I was going to build a million Reconstruction and Development Programme houses and goodness only knows how many new townhouses in South Africa over the past 10 years, I would need to build some more power plants as well as sewerage plants and reservoirs. I do not believe one has to be a rocket scientist to work this out. The man is making feeble-minded excuses for blatant stupidity.

He who expected nothing will not be disappointed. — P Leggat

A degree in spin-doctoring

As recently as last week Alex Erwin was still denying to the world that we had a power crisis and saying that everything was going to be OK. Now we hear that there is no water-quality crisis.

I have to wonder: which university in South Africa, or indeed the world, offers courses in spin-doctoring? Wherever it is, it is clear that Absolute Denial is a compulsory three-year major, along with Skin Thickening and Lack of Imagination.

I can just envisage the prospectus for this course explaining what wonderful opportunities there are in the world for the graduates. Honours students, I am sure, get very highly paid positions in Washington, London and, of late, Russia. Those with mediocre passes can find good positions all over Europe. The ones that scrape through or falsify their degree papers seem to find favour with the South African government.

Now I am not sure how many of these experts are employed by the members of our Cabinet, but it is clear that they are all of one mind, because this denial theme runs like a golden thread through all the speeches they prepare for Cabinet ministers.

Another possibility is that spin services, like many other government-run bodies, suffers from lack of capacity. I should imagine that spin services warned the government at least 10 years ago that, due to the way things were going in the country, it would have to increase its capacity tenfold by 2007. There may even have been a White Paper issued on the matter. (Why does the government cling doggedly to this racially offensive term that is a legacy of colonialist parliamentary democracy?)

If indeed the problem is one of capacity restraints due to ”unforeseen growth” (their term), then we as good citizens should all do our bit and assist in whatever small way we can for the sake of the country. When spin services uses the same speech, just changing the names and dates, then we should be tolerant and not criticise. We should understand that it did mention this many years ago. And who can blame it for not being more persistent at the time? It is conditioned in its training not to expect anyone to believe it anyway.

Spare a thought, too, for the rulers of our land. They are wise and very experienced, yet they have to swallow their pride and regurgitate these rehashed speeches, obviously knowing full well what nonsense they are. What an embarrassment for them, and what a sacrifice of personal dignity they make in the interest of saving face for the country. Who are we then, mere mortals, to criticise and complain? — Rob Pienaar, Fairland

In brief

It’s comical that Jacob Zuma is calling for unity and calm while ANC MPs are running scared about their jobs. People always said Zuma is a people’s man and that he consults. Let’s see that consultation happening first in the party. — Tshepo Diale, Ga-Rankuwa

Fackson Banda, who wrote about media tribunals in your last edition, tells us that his chair in media and democracy is funded by SAB/Unesco. I’m aghast. Has Breweries bought out Unesco? I think we should be told. — Ruth Muller, Johannesburg

I am concerned that the resolution in favour of a media tribunal by the ANC’s conference is intended only to protect people in high positions. — Terry Morley, Muizenberg

Kwanele Sosibo’s crit of M-Net’s The Coconuts was a disgrace. I was in the (multiracial) studio audience, who laughed uproariously at this genuinely funny send-up of South African society. Popular acclaim is what counts — not reviewers with their heads up their butts. — WL Mason, Johannesburg

Khadija Bradlow abuses journalistic power to name and detail the academic who declined a media interview. She uses this personalised example to claim that ”intellectuals” with ”gargantuan self-regard” are holed up in ivory towers and have no concern for the masses or media. This claim is never substantiated. — Marie Huchzermeyer, Wits University

I would like to let you know that I e-filed my tax returns on Friday February 1 and on Monday February 8 it had been assessed! Yes, I do live in South Africa. — PR Jordan, Cape Town