With the still prevailing loadshedding occurrences and increase in electricity bills, Eskom’s problems seem to be here to stay. Whether the cause is power plant infrastructure failure or corruption and money laundering, the truth remains that Eskom is struggling as a South African electricity public utility.
As it currently stands, Eskom has remaining debts that sum up to R450 billion. Since February 2020, the pressure and debate to privatise Eskom had escalated to the extent of involving national ministers such as Tito Mboweni, former Minister of Finance, endorsing the means to privatise this government-controlled utility.
This would be to divide Eskom into three sectors, namely: generation, transmission, and distribution. As Andre de Ruyter, the CEO of Eskom argues and reiterates, the unbundling of Eskom would encourage more private sectors to make investments. But if we are being logical or for real here, such cooperation of Eskom and private sectors is what, in previous occasions, contributed to the corruption acts that revolved around Eskom.
For instance, the infamous Gupta family coal tender that caused damages on Majuba power plant infrastructures in 2016 due to the inadequacy of the coals, how they were weak and not comparable to the generation of electricity. This, as you might have guessed, is what led to several waves of loadshedding in the year 2017 – due to the required maintenance in the power station.
And the corruption accusations that entangle Eskom do not seem to cease, with the government constantly backing it up from the financial crisis with every annual national budget to cover the damages. Still illegal action of money laundering is conducted by employees within the structures of Eskom with private sectors, with the intentions of acquiring cheap products, nepotism, or generating huge profit.
Hence the current case of France Hlakudi, former Eskom contracts manager, and his three colleagues who laundered R750 million into a private sector in which they owned and obtained shares, to reconstruct Eskom’s Kusile power station generator tubular. As you might have guessed, only R30 million was attributed to the reconstruction, the rest went into their pockets. Consequently, the Kusile power station generator failed, and the rest of Mpumalanga and some parts of the country were left to suffer from the current waves of loadshedding.
All that I am trying to say is that the root of all problems with Eskom lays within those boardrooms and offices with fancy suits and overpriced shoes. I believe for this government-owned utility to function better at the need of people, they need to dismantle and unroot the problem which are the corrupt-minded individuals who aim to gain a fortune illegally.
Because this comes at the cost of South Africans, who now must subdue and survive the strikes of loadshedding on top of the electricity bills which, on the other hand, have increased by 753% in the last two decades regardless of the influence of inflation. It is the way I believe instead of the government first pouring billions of tax money for Eskom in the next annual budget, it would be smart to invest in private or national investigation units, such as Hawks, to debunk all the individuals who are associated with illegal acts who still work for Eskom – that and all may be essential in making Eskom a better national electricity utility.