EDITORIAL | Thankfully Cyril has at last stepped in and shown who’s boss

It may have taken a while to come through, but when it did, it was, for energy minister Gwede Mantashe, like a staccato of a put down: Sit. Down. Mantashe!

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that private power generation will increase from 1MW to 100MW as opposed to the 10MW announced by Mantashe just a few weeks ago. 

While the presidency billed the announcement as a major boost for economic recovery, it was, at the same time, clear that Mantashe was shunted aside. It was as much a boost to the economy as it was a correction of Mantashe’s poor leadership of the sector. 

He had told industry it would only be allowed to generate up to 10MW. Understandably, society balked. Mantashe remained characteristically defiant, claiming, even when nobody believed him, that 10,000 people were consulted and they were the basis of his decision — flawed though it was. 

Ramaphosa on Thursday did the work he employed Mantashe to do — provide leadership in the energy space. If we are dispassionate about it, why would Ramaphosa make an announcement that Mantashe has already done on the same topic, on the same research, same consultations to the same stakeholders? The adjustment, from 10 to 100MW, could easily have been made by Mantashe, except it would have meant him eating humble pie publicly. 

The statesman that Ramaphosa is, he found more elegant terms to tell his minister to sit down. He said the announcement “demonstrates our commitment as government to listen carefully to experts, to engage closely with our social partners, and to take on board new ideas to address our long-standing challenges”.

Ramaphosa on Thursday did the work he employed Mantashe to do – provide leadership in the energy space.

It was a serum of truth for Mantashe who, contrary to Ramaphosa’s announcement, was steadfast and demonstrated a penchant not to listen to expert advice but to show us who is in charge. But the tables turned yesterday as Ramaphosa showed, as he should have done long ago, who is in charge. 

Yet Ramaphosa doing Mantashe’s job is one part of the problem. The other is Eskom, which is in the process of unleashing back-to-back load-shedding during the coldest days of the year, without an explanation why power outages seem to be getting worse. The usual throw-away lines about maintenance are no longer believable. They seem an excuse to cover up what seems an inability to supply power at predictable periods like winter and summer. 

Part of the predicate for limiting private power generation is the need to ensure that the private sector does not compete with Eskom, the nation’s power monopoly, in their supply of excess power back to, say, municipalities. This is as flawed and antiquated as Eskom’s faulty power stations. 

What is important is that where big power users like mines can get off the grid, this would allow Eskom to redirect its generation to the rest of the country, currently evidently undersupplied. Why would relieving an entity struggling to supply power constitute a threat to its existence? We are happy that Ramaphosa saw through this illogic.

At some point, Ramaphosa will need to, as he has done with Mantashe, step in and help the public enterprises minister to ensure Eskom does what Eskom was established to do. It is plain, and economists have said this ad nauseam, that Eskom inhibits our country’s growth instead of powering our recovery. 

It must have been a source of much pain and writhing for Ramaphosa to have to publicly contradict one of his closest allies. It was necessary. It is what this country needs now.