An elderly lion only shows its massive, dark mane to display its former greatness. Toothless and hungry, its fleshless and massive skeletal frame is left to be skinned alive by ruthless hyenas and hovering vultures.
The 55th ANC elective conference takes place in the dark as the 110-year-old movement, burdened by incumbency and policy discordance, is tripped up by Eskom, which is a few months shy of centenarian and laden with burdens of ageing. What a historical match they make!
Rich and middle-class South Africans in gated residential areas are increasingly disconnecting from the national grid, starving it of much-needed revenue, while municipalities and government departments shamelessly owe the public utility more than R52bn. Due to the government’s haplessly hurried just energy transition (JET), Eskom is forced to deploy revenue to make this important dream turned nightmare viable.
Lacklustre policy design and haphazard thought processes have unleashed unparalleled vulnerabilities on our once-proud lion — its prowess now skeletal due to cable and coal theft, political interference, mismanagement and sabotage.
The convergence and coincidence of the commencement of the conference and resignation of Eskom CEO André de Ruyter have thickened the spectre of darkness. In an opinion piece two months ago titled “Have a heart: relieve De Ruyter of his burden so he and SA can see the light”, I joined a call for De Ruyter’s head. He has finally, of his own volition, bowed out. But the reasons he proffered point to a state ghost. De Ruyter wailed like a widow, feeling unprotected from attacks by mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe, who correctly called him a police officer who could not deliver energy. De Ruyter certainly had a lot to offer as such, but not as the head of energy.
In a horses-for-courses strategy, I would have placed an engineer at the helm, supported on one hand by an energy expert who translates engineering complexity into energy economics and on the other De Ruyter to execute the policing many mourning his departure correctly credited him for. To avoid the same mistake, the Eskom board will still need a De Ruyter, but not at the helm.
Mantashe’s posture when he signed independent power producer (IPP) agreements recently was unpleasant and indignant, suggesting he did so unwillingly and under duress. Could it be that De Ruyter resigned shortly thereafter because he had got want he wanted and it had nothing to do with lack of protection against Mantashe and his police officer utterings?
The man might be blamed, but he was given an impossible mandate, one only a schizophrenic could be comfortable with. De Ruyter might not be a schizophrenic but a maverick who knows how to usurp and deploy power, as well as when to jump. His mandate consisted of diametrically contradictory prongs: the first was to entrench the JET at any and whatever cost, the second, which he resisted, thereby plunging the country into darkness, was to maintain coal-fired power stations.
What the country has experienced due to the Eskom of De Ruyter and his handlers is an as-yet-unfinished story in the Book of Esther, about King Xerxes the Great, Queen Esther, Mordecai, the Jews and Haman. Haman, King Xerxes’ army general, hated Mordecai and the Jews. Mordecai, a Jew, prepares Esther, his niece, to win the king’s heart. The plot works. Haman, in his haste to demolish Mordecai, plots the annihilation of the Jews and sells his plan to the king, who endorses it. Queen Esther is distressed, so the king offers her anything she wants. Esther then reveals her Jewish origins and relationship to Mordecai, who is about to be killed. The king hangs Haman and orders the Jews to defend themselves.
Eskom’s demise and the country’s economic performance are what Mordecai and the Jews were to Haman. De Ruyter, the Haman of our times, has fallen on his sword, giving Eskom the chance to execute one mandate — maintenance of coal-fired power stations, provided the right engineer is ensconced at its helm, with an energy expert and a De Ruyter-type police officer who will protect its assets and chase those who owe it to pay their dues. Haman’s javelin was well-designed, but Esther caught him out.
Mantashe has publicly complained about the green energy move undermining coal-fired power. He has now been taken to court, which has ruled in favour of complainants who demand the minister explain how 1,500 megawatts of coal ended up in the bag. Mantashe’s posture when he signed independent power producer (IPP) agreements recently was unpleasant and indignant, suggesting he did so unwillingly and under duress. Could it be that De Ruyter resigned shortly thereafter because he had got want he wanted and it had nothing to do with lack of protection against Mantashe and his police officer utterings? Is there a javelin in all this given De Ruyter’s proximity to IPPs and the JET?
At their peak, centenarians of the ANC and Eskom had manes that shone like mirrors, their scent energised the country, and the messages they carried brought hope to the world. Now, their Johnny-come-lately, death-wish conduct is worrisome. Both face an existential threat, with Eskom’s death merely awaiting a coroner’s certificate, while the ANC awaits the heart surgeon.
The fate of SA anchored in Eskom and the ANC is the unfinished story of Esther. She is yet to unravel Haman's plot, while King Xerxes is yet to hang Haman and command the Jews to fight for themselves. This is a chapter to unravel beyond De Ruyter’s resignation and the conclusion of the ANC conference. Watch the characters, follow the money and the plot regarding how SA was plunged into darkness will be revealed.
Perhaps a Zondo II, which might be much bigger than Zondo I, is to follow. SA’s judiciary may be the last line of defence in ushering in hope, renewal and revival of a truly democratic state. Rules forced on the legislature by the judiciary may see the executive start to respect its responsibility towards the nation. This might be the great moment SA has been waiting for. What Zondo revealed must be ruthlessly acted upon, lest we drift into Armageddon. But as the book says, only those with eyes to see will see and only those with ears to hear will hear.
Remember this: keep your dog in a cage and do not allow it to use the hay therein as a bedroom because when it departs, it will cock its leg and urinate thereon, like the Stellenbosch racist who urinated on another’s laptop. No cow or horse will ever consume that hay. You will not have milk and there will be no rides to enjoy on an emaciated horse simply because the deceitful dog barked to the glory of a master who thought the animal was protecting him from thieves while he slept peacefully. The dog responded to its own interests of sleeping.
By not adopting a horses-for-courses strategy and keeping the dog in its cage, the JET has become a leech that has sucked resources from Eskom, bifurcated management attention from the here-and-now solving of the crisis and turned cabinet cohesion into a game of spats. It has bequeathed us stage 6 load-shedding and sucked prospects for jobs and growth out of SA’s ecosystem, condemning the poor to deeper poverty and severe energy hunger.
Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand and a distinguished alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former statistician-general of South Africa.
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