Eskom is an albatross around our collective necks, and it's choking us to death. The vulnerability of its power-generating plants, as well as its lack of planning and foresight, were exposed by the heavy rains of the past two weeks. Some power stations in Mpumalanga could not cope with the amount of floodwater seeping in, and rainwater wet its coal reserves at storages in Medupi and other plants. On Monday, when the situation became untenable and the national grid could no longer cope, Eskom hastily implemented unprecedented stage 6 load-shedding, which demands a reduction of 6,000MW. South Africans were shocked and frustrated. Mining operations halted, small businesses shut up shop, the economy came to a standstill and so did the traffic at non-functioning traffic lights...