“So it’s not a bloated workforce if you actually want power.”
Seriously?
That’s probably the funniest defense of Eskom so far.
You keep selectively picking numbers you think you can school me on, while completely missing the bloody point.
I never said that having roughly 42,000 employees automatically proves Eskom is bloated. I said pointing at the 66,000 employees Eskom had in the 80s certainly doesn’t prove that it isn’t.
And since YOU brought up the 80s, let’s look at the whole picture instead of cherry-picking one number.
Eskom itself says that when John Maree took over there were around 66,000 employees, with projections to grow that to 72,000. Management instead decided to cut staff and specifically said that increasing electricity output with fewer employees would have to come from improved productivity.
So even Eskom in the 80s understood the rather simple concept that more employees doesn’t automatically mean more or better electricity.
And Eskom had such an oversupply of generating capacity during that period that power stations were actually being mothballed. In the years that followed, efficiency improved dramatically and Eskom eventually achieved its goal of producing the cheapest electricity in the world in the 1990s.
So your own 80s comparison actually helps make my point.
Now compare that with what paying South Africans have had to swallow in more recent years.
Medupi and Kusile went hundreds of billions over their original budgets, with years of delays, defects, poor engineering and rework.
Then we had 280 days of load shedding in FY2023 and 329 days in FY2024.
When the coal fleet couldn’t produce enough electricity, Eskom burned roughly R29.2 BILLION worth of diesel in FY2023 and another R33.4 BILLION in FY2024 keeping the OCGTs going.
And who exactly do you think ultimately foots the bill for all this?
Us. The paying consumer and taxpayer. Logic 101.
Those billions don’t magically disappear. Neither do the costs of bailouts, debt relief, failed projects, electricity theft, illegal connections and non-payment.
Electricity still needs to be generated. Transformers still need replacing. Infrastructure still needs maintaining. Eskom still needs revenue.
And ultimately the people and businesses who actually PAY keep carrying the burden.
So spare me the “if you actually want power” argument.
South Africans DO want power. More importantly, millions of us actually pay through our arses for it... and then we’ve had to spend even more on generators, inverters, batteries and solar just to make sure we actually HAVE power.
That’s the point you keep conveniently avoiding.
You can selectively nitpick employee numbers from the 80s all day long. It doesn’t change the end result.
The proof is in the pudding.
What has Eskom cost this country, and what have the paying consumers actually received in return? F*KK*L!!!
Because after everything South Africans have paid for Eskom over the years, telling them “well, if you actually want power…” is one hell of an argument.
That’s probably the funniest defense of Eskom so far.
That’s probably the funniest defense of Eskom so far.
