It was nearly 16 years ago that rolling blackouts began in SA. At the time the reason given was that persistent rain during February 2007 had soaked coal stockpiles and created a shortage for power stations.
The phenomenon, then thought to be a shocking exception, soon gained a new, less affronting term called “load-shedding” as it settled in for the long haul.
There were to be many excuses before the truth became apparent, that the government (of the ANC) had refused Eskom permission to build new power stations. Eskom was powerful at the time, with top-class executives and a board made up of local and global talent. It was an award-winning organisation.
Though the decision to build new power stations had already been taken, the ANC was in its second year of serious internal conflict that led to its leadership being distracted from governing the country. It was the year of the party’s 52nd national conference in Polokwane and the most important thing on the minds of its members and leaders was the election of either Jacob Zuma or Thabo Mbeki as president of the party.
It is now history that Jacob Zuma was elected party president in December 2007, and in 2008 the party was still busy purging government of anyone the new leadership did not like. By September of that year, it purged a sitting president, Thabo Mbeki. State-owned companies such as Eskom did not fare better either, rifling through a series of CEOs of differing capabilities, integrity and temperament.
The world saw a bizarre concept called “CEO rotation” at Eskom when the country was run by the Gupta family on behalf of Jacob Zuma and the ANC. This happened as billions of rand were siphoned off the entity in broad daylight because the thieves knew they enjoyed political protection and law enforcement agencies existed only in name. Sometimes they were run by gallery of gangster-like figures, some of whom I had run-ins with while editor of Business Day.
Last week Eskom informed the country that it was moving to stage 6 load-shedding. This is a euphemism for up to 10 hours without electricity in a 24hr cycle. Before that announcement, the company had also revealed it was running out of its emergency stock of diesel. Previously, it has announced that blackouts will be with us for some time.
At the time, the ANC was once again busy with other things. Its top decision-making structure was discussing yet another presidential scandal. As it has consistently done over the years, it voted to shield its president.
We have also noted the decline in state and private sector funding in some critical areas of focus, a sad fact reflected in our education, health, science and technology document, which will be discussed at the ANC’s national conference this month.
— Paul Mashatile, ANC treasurer and acting secretary-general
In any event, even if the party had met to discuss the issue, nothing would come of it. Sixteen years is a very long time for a meeting, by the same people who created the problem, to make any positive difference.
As part of the customary flurry of press interviews by ANC leadership candidates, the party’s treasurer and acting secretary-general, Paul Mashatile said that he has the solutions to put an end to the country’s woes, including load-shedding and the comatose economy.
In an op-ed in SowetanLIVE, Mashatile said: “While entrepreneurship and innovation have been identified as key to addressing youth unemployment, the ANC, in its policy documents, attributes the overall slow pace of progress to policy failures and inadequate implementation of some of its policy resolutions by various government departments, as well as the basic education, higher education and college sectors.
“We have also noted the decline in state and private sector funding in some critical areas of focus, a sad fact reflected in our education, health, science and technology document, which will be discussed at the ANC’s national conference this month.”
The sense of entitlement to power is so powerful that Mashatile seemingly believes South Africans should keep his party in power. I’m sure there is no stronger evidence of the ANC’s disconnection than this. In any event, he is yet to explain why, having been at the centre of the decline and suffering for so long, he or the ANC will suddenly be visited by bright ideas after all these years.
The reality is that the ANC is a spent force morally and intellectually. It has nothing to offer. Even if it were inclined to try to recover, it is too consumed by corruption, self-enrichment, factionalism, corruption scandals and court cases.
It is mind-boggling that with the level of talent and skills countless South Africans have, the country appears well on its way to becoming a failed state where the lights regularly go off and children starve while political leaders worry about bricks of undeclared forex stuffed into couches.
Given how much else is going wrong, such as unemployment (34% in 2022 vs 21% in 2002), collapsing municipalities, rail system, water infrastructure and far too many other things to list here, it is now incumbent that the 2024 election is seen as a defining moment in SA’s post-1994 history.
SA has a depth of talent to match any country in the world, in every area of expertise. The obstacles are still an unwillingness to be bold and a lack of faith in the possibility of a new democratic collective that can move past the polarisations of old.
Many people have rightly complained about the proliferation of new parties crying for unity. They are correct, but unity cannot be a simple conglomeration of egos under one umbrella. The history of SA politics tells us the intensity of political contestation will be the same circus we see in metro council coalitions.
To last, unity must be premised on a clear idea that represents values tens of millions of South Africans can believe in. In my view, ours is a social democratic constitution that espouses values of integrity, freedom, equality, justice and solidarity.
Values are important because they can hold a unity project together despite differences of opinion on policy matters. Building national or political alliances without shared values results in transactional relationships that easily fall apart as soon as one party does not get its way.
In addition to values, it is also important to agree on principles and priorities. For instance, the social democratic idea is suited to SA conditions because it is not only aligned with what I believe to be the country’s political moral idea, it also excludes ideological extremities. It requires a competent, modern state that can catalyse rather than control socioeconomic development. Therefore, this excludes neoliberal extremists who want predatory deregulation and no access to social safety nets.
Of course, ideologues balk at this, but consider that railway workers in the US do not have paid sick leave, the only developed economy where this is the case. A social democratic umbrella means the health, safety and overall wellbeing of workers is as important asprofit. It is false that the market “punishes” bad behaviour.
I also believe our top national priorities are self-evident, these being the economy, skills training and education (to align the labour market with economic growth possibilities), load-shedding, crime, municipal service delivery and protecting South Africans from the ravages of climate change. Though the latter is often reduced to whether we should have coal power stations, the reality is that the KZN floods and droughts devastating crops and livestock are some of its consequences — and they all kill real human beings.
The above is not an exhaustive or perfect list. My point is that it is possible to unseat the ANC and unite behind a progressive, values-anchored vision of a better SA. After 16 years of waiting, surely we can finally see the writing on the wall.
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