How incompetents switched off South Africa's electricity

It is the year 2008, and suddenly there is not enough electricity to power the country. All major business districs and house holds are switched off for two hour blocks at a time, in the form of rolling black-outs throughout the entire country.





This is now starting to happen several times a day.





Business comes to a stand still as computer networks are disrupted...
Traffic grid locks as traffic lights in entire areas stop functioning...





How did this come about ?





Before the advent of democracy (rougly 13 years ago), South Africa had such a major electricity surplus that it mothballed 3 power stations, and still managed to export electricity to neighbouring countries.





So how did South Africa suddenly (and according to the politicians: "Unexpectedly") run out of electricity.





Lets look at the facts:





* In 1998 a goverment whitepaper was presented to parlament predicting that South Africa would run out electricity by 2007 if immediate action is not taken (build more power stations). Nothing was done.





* In 2002 the electricity regulator fined Eskom (the national power utility) for gross negligance for how it is managing the country's electricity supply





* Electricity demand is not difficult to predict. Ten years ago the ANC said it was targeting 5-6% economic growth rate, which was roughly what transpired. Electricity growth CORRELATES near perfectly with GDP growth. Thus any high school kid armed with a calculator can predict future electricity demand.





Therefore there exists no other explanation for this dire situation: Gross Incompetence.





The major changes that occured in the Government and at Eskom in the past 13 years of democracy:





* White politicians from the old order have been replaced by ANC people (almost all non-white)





* Massive sections of Eskom's white management has been replaced by black management in order to comply with governments affirmative action laws.





It does seem enterresting that South Africa always had excess electricity. Then it replaced all the white faces with black faces. Then 10 years later the country runs out of electricity.





What are the effects ?





Two weeks ago the single largest ever foreign direct investment into South Africa was cancelled because there is not enough electricity to support the project (R 22 Billion)





Several platinum projects were also placed on hold.





I predict that South Africa will loose in the region of R 200 billion in foreign investment over the next 5 years as a direct result of this.





Eskom has said that it will take at least 5 years for the problem to be rectified, whilst independant experts place it at 7-10 years.





In one fell swoop irreparable damage has been done to the SA economy.

References

Eskom tells mines to shut down

Electricity shortage a national emergency

WARNED 10 YEARS AGO OF ELECTRICITY CRISIS

Lack of electricity now blackens the economy

Electricity crisis worsens, mines close

http://www.sabcnews.com/features/eskom/

Where does the blame for load-shedding really lie?



-------------- One last happy thought...

Whats the difference between the TITANIC and SOUTH AFRICA ?

?

With the Titanic, the lights were still on, when it sank!

How South Africa chooses to be poor

What creates wealth ?

Taking advantage of opportunities.

Making the most of each. Extracting maximum economic value from every opportunity.

What do we do instead ?

We choose to be 50-60% less efficient than we can be.

How do we do this ?

Imagine an economic value chain 7 levels deep. One business buys a product from another business, who in turn depends on service from another business who in turns ... you get the idea!

Now imagine loosing 10% efficiency at every step....

I've calculated the effect will be that you only realise 47% of the value, with 53% of the value being lost.

This means if we used every opportunity to its full, each person would have been twice as wealthy, earn twice as much money... and half as many people would have been desperately poor.

Instead this is how we throw away our opportunities
- Imagine loosing 10% in productivity due to massive electricy problems
- Imagine loosing 10% in time due to being stuck in traffic jams and lack of public transport
- Imagine a business spending 10% of its inccome on security measures due to our rampant crime
- Imagine the productivity loss due to the Telkom monopoly
- Imagine the loss in productivity due to the fact that many companies are required to hire employees that best fit their BEE (black economic empowerment) objectives rather than the most skilled ones
- Image the loss in productivity due to all the highly skilled people buggering off to Australia, the UK etc.
- Imagine the loss in productivity due to inflexible labour laws (companies cannot hire and fire employees easily, employees regularly strike and demand wage increases far in excess of inflation etc.)

All of these inefficiencies add up.

This is the South African reality. A place that has through active negligence by its leaders ensured that it only operates at 47% efficiency.

If only SA didn't wait until recently before acknowledging the extent of crime...
If only Eskom could have ***somehow*** foreseen the obvious supply problems 10 years ago...
If only South Africa could have realised the price it pays for BEE in terms of inefficiencies and in chasing competent white people out of the country...

All of these things have been blatantly obvious for years, but our leaders refused to act.
The damage has been done and will take 10 years or more to recover from - if we get superstar competent president appointed next.

However the majority (mostly black people) are all voting for Jacob Zuma, the person that has been accused of Fraud, Rape, Corruption and that enjoys singing a song (Translated as "Bring me my machine gun")

Articles in the news:

Zuma makes his final legal stand
ANCYL wants zuma for President
'Zuma will be President'


and then: Totally Bizare ?!??

"President Zuma will sort out White People" was published in the Sunday Standard in Gaborone.

Take the red pil - You are not crazy

Some questions you need to immediately ask yourself

Why did the government try to cover up the crime statistics in South Africa in the early 2000s, by placing a moratorium on the release of all crime statistics ?

Why has the government until recently tried to deny that crime is a problem in South Africa, despite SA having the highest murder and rape rates per 100 000 ?

Why has the government for years denied that HIV causes AIDS, that anti retrovirals are a suitable treatment of AIDS, and then tried to block the distribution of these drugs (the Treatment Action Compaign had to force the government via the courts to take action) ?

Why is the government at the same time:
1. Promoting a policy that gives preference to race over competence, resulting in 1000 0000 highly skilled white people leaving the country
2. Complaining about the lack of skills ?

Why has the government not fired the minister of Health, Manto Tsabalala-Msimang whom after a recent liver transplant has been proved to drink in hospital (medical records obtained by the Sunday Times) and known to have been fired from a prior position of Medical Superintendant due to theft, years ago in Bophutatswana. She is also known for her flawed views on HIV, and scandals at several hospitals (thousands of babies dying, unsafe hospital conditions)... in fact the president commended her for her courageously defending herself against the press!

Why has the government allowed the dire situation in Zimbabwe to continue to spin out of control since the late nineties, since they repossessed white farms (murdering many), bulldozing people's houses down, and creating the worlds highest inflation (approaching 10 000%), the population starving and millions of desperate people illegally entering South Africa.

Why is Telkom, the fixed line monopoly so useless that several hate websites are dedicated to it, and organisations such as the telecoms action group (TAG) have taken out full page adds against it in major business publications ? Why is it in many cases near impossible to get proper internet services, despite Telkom having been identified as the main culprit, nearly 10 years ago already ?

Why are most municipalities and local government structures a complete mess, failing to deliver basic services and steeped in corruption ?

Why has SAA (the government owned airline) been run completely into the ground ?
See sites like www.neverflysaa.com

Why was the planning at the national power operator so flawed that major South African business areas are regularly affected by power cuts ?

Why does the South African government insist on free medical care for all citizens whilst many of the state hospitals are near collapse ?

Why are so many top politicians being investigated for crime and corruption at the moment ?

Why are the mob ties of our national police chief not properly investigated ?

Why do we have exchange controls preventing individuals from taking their money out of the country ?

The reason for these and many others are
1. Sheer incompetence
2. The supposed needs of "Whites" are considered less important than the needs of blacks (the voting majority), such as the redistribution of wealth and affirmative action.
3. We are slowly sinking into a tyrannical state, just like almost any other African country where suffering, despair, poverty, crime and AIDS is rampant.

The system is corrupt and incompetent to the core!

If you are still here (like me), I hope you have a backup escape plan.

There is no swift collapse coming, but neither is their a quick fix to all our woes in the pipeline.


Feeling depressed ?
There is nothing wrong with you.

If you are dumb-founded with the questions above, and questioning your own sanity, or simply confused by the mismatch between your own inner logical mind and the chaos so clearly visible around you in everyday life in South Africa, I can only offer you a small consolation.

The problem is not with you. The system is busted. They ARE out to get you.