Eskom is a
summary of the crises facing South Africa.
The corporation, which, until the ANC put its cadres in to ‘manage’ it,
was known as a reliable, forward-thinking and efficient producer of
electricity. It was one of the factors
that enable the country to thrive, when all other African countries were
languishing in mediocrity. Since the ANC
has had its fingers in the pie, the corporation has abandoned the principle of
planned maintenance. It has, in fact,
forgotten how to plan. Its management capability
has sunk to an historic low, along with the staff morale. The interruption of supply from Koeberg
nuclear power station was caused by a worker dropping a piece of scaffolding
onto a critical transformer. That single
event should have sent waves of near-panic through South African society. If the standards of care applied in a simple
maintenance procedure are as indicated by that event, it raises significant
doubts about the capability of the present management of the corporation to operate
what is, in fact, a controlled nuclear explosion. That event, coupled with the copious evidence
that has become available in recent months regarding the incapability of Eskom
to do anything to at least a minimum standard of competence, must put up a huge
warning sign to the public of South Africa and of the world. Eskom is not capable of operating nuclear
reactors in a safe manner.
If the
continuing crises caused by Eskom (yes, even by the strange definition of the
Minister of Energy, that a crisis is a disaster that is unplanned) were the
sole major problem that has arisen under ANC management of the country, it
would be a warning sign that cold not pass unheeded. Unfortunately, it is not the sole
crisis. Look at the other ‘isolated’
problems which the country is facing:
·
South
Africa Airways is a public body that failed to publish annual accounts for more
than two years, because such publication would show that the corporation is
insolvent. Unfortunately, the fact of
insolvency is not created by the publication of the accounts. A corporation is insolvent if it is
financially unable to pay its debts. The
fact that the demand for repayment has not been made does not make it solvent,
nor does the fact that it does not disclose its inability to pay. South African Airways has continued to trade
in an insolvent state, to the knowledge of its shareholder (ultimately the
South African State) for years, being saved from actual collapse from time to
time by the continuing injection of taxpayer money, as a way of papering over
the cracks caused by incompetent management.
If South African Airways were privately owned, its Directors and top
management would have been behind bars for their breach of the laws regarding
insolvency.
·
The
South African Police Services seem, to the public, to be little more than a
band of thugs, showing remarkably little capability of controlling crime, or of
investigating those actual crimes that it does turn its attention to. Stories abound of criminal acts reported to
the Police without any attention being paid to their investigation or
prosecution. A group of German investors
known to the writer speak to their many investor friends of the seventeen
criminal acts reported to the Police at Brakpan, including several where a
Police officer was present at the apprehension of the criminal and obtained
written and signed acknowledgements of guilt from those accused, all without
any trial of the accused resulting. The
fact that a Commissioner of Police could have been found guilty of corruption speaks
for itself. The fact that he was a
senior figure in Interpol at the time has caused incalculable damage to the
image of the country amongst investors abroad.
Yet there is no sign that any meaningful action is being undertaken to
correct this situation.
·
The
South African Broadcasting Corporation was headed by a Chairperson of the Board
who lied about her educational qualifications.
The requirement that the senior officials of banks, insurance companies
and other financial services organisations should be fit and proper persons,
with the correct qualifications, is a recognised part of the law relating to
privately-owned companies, yet that seems to have been flagrantly ignored. The Minister chose to ignore the findings and
recommendations of the Public Protector, reappointing the CEO, who was found to
have lied about his qualifications, and also to have breached the regulations
in granting himself and his girlfriend substantial salary increases. The Minister’s explanation was that ‘he has
done nothing wrong’!
·
The
Department of Education has continued to show a remarkably high level of
incompetence, bringing the South African education system to a position of 183
of 187 countries. The latest ‘achievement’
of under 75% of children passing the Matric examination was ‘regretted’, but the
fall from 78% was explained by the ‘new curriculum’, for which, apparently, the
teachers were nor prepared! The fact
that 150 000 youngsters failed to pass an examination for which they had
been studying for twelve years was totally ignored. The fact that the lowering of the pass marks
required, in order to achieve even this lamentable result, is also ignored,
although this has had the result of bringing the qualifications achieved at
South African schools and universities under suspicion. Before the ANC took over management of the
education system, a South African degree was recognised unquestioningly around
the world; now it has practically no value.
South African businesspeople will attest that a matric, and even a
degree, is now no longer an indicator that the applicant for a job will be able
to perform to reasonable expectations.
·
Spoornet
has done more to destroy the export capability of South African industry than
any other of the ANC-managed public bodies, with the possible exception of
Eskom. Examples abound of trains being
unavailable for the transport of export commodities, either on time or at
all. It is not unusual for customers
being compelled to employ the services of a Black-owned ‘Consultant’ to
negotiate the availability of trains.
One client found that Spoornet failed over a period of several weeks to
make the trains available, as they had been promised in writing, until the
exporter, which was paying demurrage on a ship waiting to load in Durban at the
rate of $25 000 per day, until a Black ‘Consultant’ was employed at a cost
of R300 000, after which the trains suddenly arrived at the siding! That client has ensured that every potential
foreign investor in South Africa has come to know of this. The result has been the withdrawal of at
least two billion dollars of potential investment in the country.
·
SANRal,
the body entrusted with the development and maintenance of the roads system in
South Africa, has repeatedly shown an arrogant disdain for the desires and
needs of the South African public, the ultimate owners of the Corporation, with
the imposition of the e-toll system, after effectively selling off the right to
recover tolls on practically every major arterial road, which were previously
funded entirely by the taxpayers, at the cost of a significant reduction in the
economic activity for which those roads were built. The refusal of SANRAL to make publically available
the details of the contracts underpinning the e-toll system, and the very high
cost of operating that system (which any competent manager would have warned of
at an early stage in the planning), have clearly demonstrated the high level of
managerial incompetence and the distance of the corporation from the final
owners of the corporation. SANRAL is a
clear case of a Government entity running wild.
·
The
Municipalities under the control of ANC cadres have been found to have suffered
losses in the hundreds of billions of Rands by corruption and probably
multiples of that by inefficiencies, leading to a culture of rioting and
destruction of properties by communities who have been deprived of the public
services to which they are entitled.
Numerous municipalities have been placed under administration as a
result, and this process continues.
Nowhere in the world is this phenomenon so clear as in South Africa
under the ANC.
·
Parliament
has been shown to be ineffective as an organ of Government, with a clear
reluctance by the Speaker to permit any debate that might tend to show the
corruption, dishonesty or ineffectiveness of the ANC. This tendency was arguably started under the
Presidency of Thabo Mbeki, who showed remarkable effectiveness in stifling any
attempt to debate the Arms Scandal in the late 1990s, and has been continued
under his successor, with the ‘debate’ on the Nkandla Scandal creating a new
lowlight in the history of democracy in South Africa. It is remarkable that a claim by the
President, the man responsible for the effective government of the country,
that he did not notice the expenditure of R245 000 000 on his own
property, should have been made and then could have been accepted by the
Members of Parliament, the men and women who have undertaken the sacred duty of
representing the people of the country.
It is even more remarkable that Zuma should now make his first
appearance in Parliament, the body to which he should be accountable for his
and his Administration’s actions, on February 12, a few days short of six months
(!) after he was effectively driven from Parliament by the active questioning
of his conduct by the EFF. It is even
more remarkable that it could have taken twenty years of witnessing the arrogance,
the corruption and the ineffectiveness of the ANC in their management of the
country, its organs and its economy, for the official Opposition Party to have
finally started to show signs of growing a backbone.
There are
numerous other examples of the crises facing South Africa now. The State of the Nation address tonight will
almost certainly be a whitewash of the Government’s ineptitude, arrogance and
corruption, rather than a clear statement of a well-considered plan to bring
the country back to the state of optimism that existed under President
Mandela.
At that
time, the country had problems, but its citizens also had hope.
Now the
country has a seemingly endless array of crises, each of them major and
probably beyond any hope of recovery under the ANC.
One can
only hope that the successor to Zuma as leader of the Party will recognise that
the party has been so tainted that the best course of conduct will be to step
aside, and allow competent managers, rather than graft-seeking politicians, to
take over the recovery efforts. It was
clear to thinking persons a decade or longer ago that the country had entered a
decline that, without a dramatic about-turn, would inevitably lead to a crash,
from which it would probably take years to recover, even with the efforts of
the best people available.
Unfortunately, it appears that the crash is now inevitable and imminent.
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