South Africa burns (2019)

[Ook]

Only follow Ian Cameron on twitter if you have the belly for it.

[Woodman]

I do not know who most of the players are, so I feel like I need to do research, but yeah, it’s a mess.

[Ook]

Not surprisingly, the outgoing CEO, Andre de Ruyter dropped hints that the ANC party is also behind this current spate of loadshedding.

I do hope for the guy and his family that they can get out of South Africa before anything happen to them. Yes, it’s that bad.

[Ook]

Here’s the interview a journalist did with de Ruyter.

My Guest Tonight With Annika Larsen | 22 February 2023

I don’t know how long that will stay up as the ANC is now in full damage-control mode.

[Ook]

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/government/481189-eskom-is-the-ancs-feeding-trough-de-ruyter-comes-out-guns-blazing-in-interview.html

Outgoing Eskom CEO André de Ruyter believes South African politicians — particularly those in the ANC — are complicit in corruption and power station sabotage that has hammered the utility.

In an hour-long interview on eTV’s My Guest Tonight with Annika Larsen, De Ruyter gave his perspective on the underlying causes for Eskom’s continued struggle with corruption and the poor performance of its generating fleet.

De Ruyter decried the “very vociferous opposition” within the government against starting South Africa’s Just Energy Transition (JET), which envisions Eskom moving away from its reliance on coal power to more renewable generation.

De Ruyter said decarbonisation was an essential part of protecting South Africa’s environment, growing its economy, addressing energy security, and creating employment.

Yet even though the shift away from coal would be a decades-long journey, various stakeholders were vigorously opposed to the JET.

When he asked a colleague why this might be, De Ruyter said they told him he was naive because he was not showing the [ANC] comrades “a way to eat”.

De Ruyter concluded that the many vested interests in the coal value chain were to blame for the fierce resistance.

A significant enabler for the JET will be $8.5 billion (R156 billion) in funding from developed countries to help South Africa shut down its coal power plants and install more renewable capacity.

When De Ruyter raised concerns with a senior government minister about attempts to water down governance around this funding, he was met with a troubling response.

The minister said that De Ruyter had to be “pragmatic”.

“In order to pursue the greater good, you have to enable some people to eat a little bit,” they said, according to De Ruyter.

When asked whether he believed that Eskom was a feeding trough for the ANC, De Ruyter said the evidence suggested that to be the case.

Politicians involved in coal cartels and sabotage

Two factors significantly weakened Eskom’s ability to run its power stations optimally: coal theft cartels and infrastructure saboteurs in Mpumalanga.

De Ruyter said there were also signs of political interference limiting Eskom’s response to these threats.

“We know of at least four organised crime cartels operating in Mpumalanga in Eskom. Some of them also have interests in Transnet.”

“It’s interesting that they have adopted the language of the mafia. People are called soldiers, and they have a hit squad, allegedly with between 60 and 70 highly-trained, well-armed people.”

De Ruyter said people that attempted to act against these criminals were killed “pretty much every week”.

De Ruyter said the lack of action against individuals that Eskom had linked to the criminal syndicates suggested politicians were involved.

He said saboteurs effectively committed treason weekly, but the State Security Agency was just “missing in action”.

“They did see fit, however, to send one of their agents to COP27 to keep an eye on me,” De Ruyter said.

“Clearly, I am under suspicion of treasonous activity, but the real culprits can act with impunity. These things are Kafkaesque.”

De Ruyter said he had also not received any apology from the government over statements from energy minister Gwede Mantashe in which he accused Eskom of treason, without providing any evidence supporting this.

He also rubbished claims by deputy state security minister Zizi Kodwa that he had not provided the State Security Agency with documents to vet him for security clearance.

De Ruyter said Eskom told one senior government minister that a high-level politician was involved in the coal cartels.

“The minister looked at a senior official and said, ‘I guess that it was inevitable that it would come out anyway’, which suggests that this wasn’t news,” De Ruyter said.

The CEO also lambasted the police’s weak response when Eskom handed over suspects and evidence of their involvement in criminal activities at its power stations.

In one instance, the utility stopped the theft of R100 million per month in fuel oil at Tutuka Power Station and identified the two individuals allegedly responsible before handing them over to the police.

“They were released the following morning on frankly, derisory, bail of R500. That’s where the matter ended,” De Ruyter said.

De Ruyter said after Eskom’s high-level meeting with senior police officials and SSA representatives, it initially seemed like positive progress had been made towards taking action.

“We shared chapter and verse what we found,” De Ruyter said.

“The generals and SSA colleagues were suitably aghast and said, ‘This is completely unacceptable, of course, we will immediately start acting on this.’ And then, nothing happened.”

“You start to question, is this just incompetence or is there an attempt to, somehow, sweep this under the carpet?”

De Ruyter estimated that around R1 billion was stolen from Eskom every month, despite his executive teams’ efforts to clamp down on corruption.

[Viking]

Just stumbled across this twitter feed from a guy in ZA. Holy crap, it looks bad over there.

FFS, Ook, stay safe!!

https://twitter.com/k9_reaper

[Ook]

At least my wife and children’s in a safer place than myself, they will be able to survive on better terms than here in the city.

[MikeP]

How soon before you can join them?
The sooner the better

[Ook]

Two things holding me back.

1. Owing the bank some money
2. Finding a job in that general area, or even a remote job.

If push comes to shove and everything collapses I’m not going to sit around and wait for better days…

[Ook]

Only follow the links if you have the belly for it.

Link → https://twitter.com/katjanechild/status/1631241752161005571?s=20

Link → https://twitter.com/RomanCabanac/status/1630900897461989376?s=20

[Woodman]

The conditions in SA right now would destroy a large percentage of people from the US. days without running water and stores closed for days at a time. Brownouts at random, while most people in the US apparently only have food for 3 days in their house. Which I can’t even imagine. Even not prepping I have food for weeks, between flour and rice at minimum.

[Nabiki]

I don’t understand only have 3 days of food either. I’m not a prepper, but I buy rice and flour in 50 lb bags, keep plenty of meat in the freezer (blackouts would hurt, but if they last one or two days, I can not open the freezer and be okay for a lot), and other staples on hand. The quail provide eggs, and the garden gives a bit of veggies.

I can see how civilization would rapidly head dowhill under those conditions, though. I’d want to get a gun and/or a big dog.

[Woodman]

Or a big dog with a gun.

I literally have a chest freezer, an upright one, and two refrigerators full of food. Losing power would suck, but I can get that shit jerkied up quick.

[Nabiki]

A gun is an investment I’d like to get one day, but they’re expensive, and I’d need to invest in ammunition and taking care of it. No point in keeping a gun if you don’t practice with it and keep it in good shape.

[Ook]

100% that.

Plus you have to use it if the situation calls for it, and that is not an easy choice the first time.

[Nabiki]

I’m also reluctant to get a dog because I’m afraid it would traumatize my cats or I’d have to keep it outside, which hardly seems like a good life for the poor creature. Dogs need a lot of attention that I’m not really prepared to give. Going for walks wouldn’t be a problem: I’d just take it with me when I play Pokemon Go, but that would be most of the attention it got.

[Woodman]

If it was practical considering your home state I would send you one. Most of mine are WWII or earlier era, cheap to run and easy to take care of. Making time to practice is the issue though.

A cricket bat behind the door is a good second choice, and pepper spray that hurts.

[Ook]

If you have a piece, do not talk about it on social media, or show photos of you practising with it.

Because of Loose lips sinks ships.

[Nabiki]

My new state is a lot less restrictive than CA. It will be even less restrictive if I change states, but that won’t happen soon if it happens at all.

[Woodman]

I lost them all in a horrific canoe accident.

And I forgot you switched states.