EISHKOM.....the joke that is Eskom these days keeps entertaining the people of South Africa.Or, not quite. Its not fun to sit in the dark, your electricity switched off because of incompetence, corruption and mismanagement at the only supplier of electricity in the region.Of course Eskom has a ready excuse - countless well-paid spin doctors at the ready - for the rolling blackouts hitting the country. This time its blamed on heavy rain, which fell in Mpumalanga, which wet the coal. Riiiiiiiiiiiighty! Im sure this is the first time its rained heavily in the area. Maybe they can give their wekkers a few hairdryers to dry the coal... Oh wait, theres no electricity!Of course they cant say its due to their own incompetence. That would mean people would be held accountable and would have to take responsibility. Why, some people may even get fired for their gross negligence! So, its all blamed on the rain.Im wondering if Botswana is also experiencing blackouts, seeing as Eskom supplies them with electricity? Im guessing not:Power utility Eskom is diverting electricity to Botswana while South Africa faces rolling blackouts........ Eskom also supplies electricity to neighbouring countries like Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho. Hmmmmm...... cant even fill demand in South Africa, yet they supply countless other countries. No wonder South Africans get stiffed when Eskom skrews up. Yesterday (Thursday) Eskom started cutting power... load-shedding to various suburbs in cities and other areas around the country.Barely had the power cuts occurred when the ANC spin doctors came out to declare that the Government had not received any reports that the economy had been affected by the power cuts, and that the situation could not be called a crisis at this stage.They forgot one word in their fairy tale: YET.This would be a good time to bring up the little project Eskom has going at the moment. Its called the Medupi power station. Well, its not quite a power station yet, seeing as theyre still building it. And building it. And building it. Its only 2 years behind schedule now and will cost double what was planned. That would be a fulsome R105 BILLLION! Yes, for a power station. For a coal-burning power station meant to produce 4,800MW once all the units have been completed. The Medupi power station was supposed to come on-line in 2012. And that was for only one unit (of the 6 x 800MW units in total), which would have added 800MW to the grid. That measly amount of power wouldnt have made a huge difference to present capacity as its to be used to prop up the system while other generators are shut down for maintenance.Then Eskom changed the planned date of switch-on to 2013, and then 2014, and now its the last quarter of 2014. Or maybe 2015. Thats for ONE unit of the power station. As for the other units, who knows. Its supposedly to be completed in full by 2017. However, theres a teeny-weeny problem still to overcome. The French company Alstom still hasnt finished developing its control technology in order to produce...err... the electricity, so Eskom has given German company Siemens the contract to finish the first two 800MW units. But Siemens also hasnt perfected the technology either. Alstom will be working on the other four units in the meantime. Hows that for competence??? Build a power station around a technology still to be developed and tested successfully. But, but, but the building is kinda getting done - 50% completed to be exact - so Eskom can at least show something for the R105 BILLION its costing the South African tax payers. Probably more by the time the thing is finished...Thats R105 000 000 000. For a power station......105 thousand million rand.......It certainly puts the ANCs Arms Deal steal-a-thon to shame. But, the unions are smiling! Theyve been sabotaging the project to prolong the building phase. And every time they sabotage it, they demand more perks and higher wages for their wekkers. And it also doesnt help when Eskom sub-contracts to shady companies - read BEE:Other major delays were caused by faulty weldings discovered last year inside the boiler. Eskom laid charges of fraud against an unnamed subcontractor for falsifying paperwork while cutting corners on more than 9,000 welds.But, as outgoing CEO Brian Dames said at a media briefing this week: “Eskom is in control”. RUN Mr Affirmative-Action Dames! Yeah, Eskom has totally got this under control. Just ignore your dark homes, the dark school-rooms, the chaotic roads, the dark businesses, the melting fridges, the closed small-businesses.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 20:20:34 +0000
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