South Africans were taken by surprise last week when Eskom, through its Twitter page, announced the decision to institute Stage 2 load shedding. That was a clear indication that the power utility is experiencing a dearth of leadership.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) predicted long ago that South Africans will be exposed to more load shedding since the power utility was run by clueless board members who lack engineering skills.

The current board members were nominated to unbundle Eskom and not to save the ailing power utility. It is this board that sanctioned the use of oil in some power stations and diesel at the peaking plants.

Such decisions damaged the power plants and the Open Cycle Gas Turbine which were designed for boiler start-up and peaking, respectively.

The current board is focusing on unbundling the power utility and attracting private capital instead of strengthening baseload in the form of coal-fired power stations and nuclear.

The ongoing wasteful expenditure, mismanagement of the nation’s limited resources, including the illegitimate appointment of Jabu Mabuza as both a CEO and a board chairperson, have all contributed to the erosion of trust in the power utility.

Mabuza recently became a laughing stock when he said publicly that he did not want his job and had never applied for it. At a media briefing to explain why load shedding has returned and what Eskom’s were plans to deal with it, Mabuza responded by saying he was there due to the decisions of President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

The power utility is still haemorrhaging money, struggling with exorbitantly corrupt contracts and still unable to ensure there is enough electricity capacity to meet the demand. The economy and workers cannot afford this mediocre performance, when considering that load shedding contributed to our economy shrinking by 3.2% in the first quarter of 2019.

The NUM is on record calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to reverse the appointment of the chief restructuring officer and instead appoint a permanent chief executive officer.

Among others, the union called on the President to replace the board with credible engineers, community representatives and trade unions through the review of the 2001 Conversion Act, to stop the unbundling of the power utility, cancel the IPP contracts and allow Eskom to manufacture, construct and operate renewable technologies.

Last, the union called on the President and Minister to institute a forensic audit on the R480-billion debt accumulated by Eskom.

This must include all coal contracts where it is clear that systematic profiteering is taking place. All those who have looted must be held accountable and the incompetent managers should be dismissed.

This, according to Eskom workers, mostly NUM members, is not the New Dawn that was promised, and President Cyril Ramaphosa now needs to act decisively. Things that were unacceptable under the fifth administration cannot be normalised and tolerated by the sixth. DM

Luphert Chilwane is a media officer at the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).