Nigeria can shed some light
A few years ago I lived in Nigeria. One of the situations I had to adjust to was the frequent power cuts.
I was an MBA student writing a thesis on mobile telecommunication networks in Nigeria and I investigated the cost of doing business for these giants, which had to keep generators running for the networks to operate.
I was so proud, coming from Southern Africa, of how organised we were and how astute we were in managing and planning our power requirements. It would never happen here, I thought naively.
But the events of the past few months have led me to believe that one should not discount what has gone on in other African countries. We should be taking lessons from the Nigerians on how to cope with power outages.
I think the least said about how Eskom and the government have managed this crisis, the better. Safe to say that it can happen here — and it is. — Vusi Silonda, Bellevue
Before President Thabo Mbeki blows out the candles at Tuynhuis and leaves office, perhaps he will pause to think of why Eskom is no longer the shining beacon state enterprise it once was.
Mbeki encouraged the employment and installation of too many transformers and condoned the shedding of too many generators. No one argues that power should not be for all South Africans. It takes more than the provision of plug points though; it also needs electricity.
Mbeki deserves his unpopularity and pending outage. I resist the urge to pun about his own loss of power and just wish there was light at the end of the tunnel in terms of his success. A switch is needed, but the prospect is dim! — Mike Meekin, Gillitts
Andrew Taynton (‘Nuke power no answer”, Letters, January 18) is right when he says each worker in wind power produces far less electricity than each worker in nuclear power, but wrong to think this is a good thing.
One train driver can transport 500 people. One rickshaw driver can transport two people. So, if you replaced trains with rickshaws you would increase transport jobs, but you would damage the economy and cause a decrease in total employment.
Because wind power is so expensive and unreliable, it can operate only with massive subsidies from the taxpayer. Germany gets 4% of its electricity from wind power, at an enormous cost and at an effective subsidy of about R750 000 for each wind job. Since this removes money from the economy that could be deployed usefully, it causes a net loss of jobs.
Koeberg nuclear power station produces about 13 000 gigawatt hours of electricity a year. To produce the same amount of electricity from wind power would require 5 800 wind turbines, each more than 80m high — as high as the Statue of Liberty. They would be vastly more expensive than Koeberg and a staggeringly inefficient use of resources. On a still day they would not give you one watt of electricity.
Wind power in Europe has proved to be an economic and environmental failure. We should not repeat the mistake here. — Andrew Kenny, Noordhoek
With regard to load-shedding, it seems everyone in the industry was aware of the impending crisis. But this is not revealed in recent Eskom annual reports.
In the 2003 Eskom annual report, in the section titled ‘Challenges ahead”, we find this astute pronouncement: ‘Our challenge will be to embed the transformation process into every part of our daily working lives.” Well, they got that right; pity the process included not having reliable power.
Jumping three years ahead to the 2006 annual report, the colourful graph showing ‘Timeframe for new capacity” seems to be fairly accurate with respect to current loads. But, in the chairperson’s report we get this fine homily: ‘Eskom’s financial results for the year underscore the strength of the group and should not be overshadowed by the unfortunate incidents in the Western Cape. Eskom’s response strategy was clearheaded and its partnerships with other role players ensured predictability and minimised inconvenience. This extraordinary combination of factors tested Eskom’s systems to the utmost and they passed, confounding those who argued that a national energy crisis was unfolding.”
Looks like some contrary people were telling the truth about a crisis. — D Clark, Johannesburg
After independence Ghana built the fourth-largest dam in the world on the Volta River to generate ample electricity for the country, but power failures in Accra are frequent. Similarly, Uganda has a large hydro station where the Nile surges out of Lake Victoria, but frequent outages occur in adjacent Kampala. Despite the presence of the massive Kariba Dam, Zimbabwe imports 40% of its power needs ‘due to underperformance of the Kariba and Hwange power stations”.
As with Eskom, none of these glaring examples of gross mismanagement has anything to do with the worrying tendency of the elite in Africa to gravitate towards board meetings, the finest luxury hotels and restaurants and imported clothing stores, while the rest of the country is left to fend for itself. — Michael Brett, Hartebeeshoek
Family matters
With reference to the article ‘There’s no business like family business” (December 21), there are two inconsistencies that need to be corrected.
The article quotes me saying: ‘Soon Ismail Akhalwaya opened a shop on what is now Dolly Rathebe Street …” This is incorrect. In fact, the first major Akhalwaya’s store was opened on Avenue Road.
I am further quoted saying: ‘My dad left school at an early age to work. The family paid the bills for my uncle to be a doctor.”
What I actually said was that my dad left school and went to work. I did not say or infer that the family paid the bills for my uncle to become a doctor. My dad, or any other family member, was not under any constraints to pay for his studies.
I would like to apologise to anyone who feels I have embellished the facts. — Mahmood Akhalwaya, E Akhalwaya & Sons, Fordsburg
The post-Polokwane blues?
After reading ‘History will not absolve us” (January 18), I feel like writing about Indian exceptionalism or, for that matter, the exceptionalism of our own tribe, the journalists.
Seriously, though, I understand your anger but have for long stopped believing in the immaculateness of any of the institutions of democracy as it is practised, or concepts like rule of law, which in practice work only for the rich and the privileged.
The phrase has such a fine, ringing sound, doesn’t it, but the resonance is to be expected given the origins of the sound from a hollow construct, even in South Africa with such a nobly articulated Constitution.
More power to your anger. — MS Prabakhara, Bangalore, India
Despite her admirable determination to rake out the truth, Ferial Haffajee ruins her chances by accepting the usual myths and falling herself into the ‘self-inflicted naiveté” she disdains.
The struggle helped achieve emancipation and a written Constitution. ‘Democracy” is not ‘won” by people, still less bestowed on them by benevolent leaders.
If the much-used and abused word has any meaning, it would arguably stand in our times for a kind of culture, a certain way of life.
There is no template for this. Each community and new generation must decide and live themselves what they mean by ‘democracy”, and ‘democratic” gains can be, and frequently are, reversed. It would be much more useful today to talk of good government.
About the members of the national executive committee who carry ‘malfeasant marks” — the reasons for their action and why they have apparently got away with it has no connection with ‘democracy” whichever way you argue it. The explanation is much simpler. South Africa is a monocracy. Comrades look out for one another.
It is past time for commentary to point out that South Africa’s problem is permanent government in the executive and the factionalism and fictions that inevitably attend it.
In reality voters have no means to change the status quo and therefore to influence to any degree the direction government takes. Some claim there will be a bigger majority for the ANC in 2009; others predict larger numbers than ever of abstentions. Either way, it means more of the same. — Paul Whelan, Umhlanga
Don’t let Zuma camp taint our courts
The Zuma camp has successfully discredited the Scorpions. Now it is concentrating on the judiciary so that, if Jacob Zuma is found guilty in his coming case, people can be mobilised to treat the case as political rather than criminal. It will then be elevated to the status of the Rivonia trial.
This is why Zuma supporters will not discuss the merits of the case, but rather resort to political conspiracy.
It is not about whether Zuma will get a fair trial, but how he will be exposed.
The new ANC leadership thought it could use its muscle to thwart the case, but the National Prosecuting Authority moved quickly to indict Zuma.
All South Africans must defend the independence of the courts against criminals in ANC clothes. — A concerned member of Black Lawyers’ Association, Durban
In brief
I understand how, in the rush of journalism, an important qualification can sometimes get left out inadvertently. This happened in your reporting of my remarks about Jackie Selebi (‘Me and Mbeki come from far”, January 17). I was careful at more than one point to preface one particular point about Selebi with the qualification that ‘if he is guilty of corruption” then ‘what has happened to him now is probably due to his arrogance. He probably thought: ‘These people are not clever enough to see what I’m doing. I’m cleverer than all of them.’” The excision of the qualification creates the impression that I assume Selebi’s guilt. I don’t. Neither, I am sure, do you.
Also, I think you will find, as I said in my interview, that Selebi went into exile in the 1970s, not the 1980s as you report. — Howard Barrell, Cardiff, United Kingdom
It seems to me that a lot of attention is given to the news regarding South African officials accused of having been bribed. What about the French, British, German and Italian bribers — they should also be named, shamed, blamed and prosecuted? — J Welsh, Cape Town
I have noticed that the Zapiro slot has been dominated by a lot of reruns. Where is the man? — Katlego Motene, London
Zapiro is on sabbatical. We miss the Zap blackout too. — The editor