Bring back South African skills - Sir Mick Davis to Andre de Ruyter

[Petec]

Haaibo! What is this racist diatribe this JVR supporter is spewing?
Eishkom don't play these games of doing-the-right-thing-for-the-good-of-the-country, my man.

 

[RonSwanson]

Definitely - so, not an art.

It's a Discipline, in which lots of experience helps.

Given our current workforce debacles, I think management would probably be happy to have literate employee's that aren't actually actively sabotaging the plant.

If Eskom consisted of one power station, and we were only focussing on the technical part, then true.

Eskom's scope is huge, generation, transmission and distribution. Diverse (and largely outdated) generation technologies, with a few newer ones in the mix, it needs very careful management of staff and skill levels, plenty of interesting dynamics, the younger ones don't want to work on the older tech. So how to create and maintain a motivated workforce, and please unions. Then on the finance side there is the demands of NERSA, the PFMA, bonds to finance new capacity, government interference and the demands of government legislation -- AA, BEE. prescriptive procurement policies, thievery, stealing and corruption. And then the pressures from the environmentalists, the Gretas of the world. Add to that the consequences of extremely poor decisions in the past, a bloated inexperienced and useless workforce, billions in debt and poor generation fleet maintenance. It's a whole lot more than just the technical side, that's the easy part.

Pulling all of that together and plotting the right way forward would be an art form, he did refer to a "Power System", and his comment is true for any large, bloated and diverse company that has been decimated by Marxism.

 

[Shadowchaser1]

Pipe dream.

 

[Lupus]

“Running a power system is an art, not a science. It needs a huge amount of skill base. It needs people with experience,” Davis said.

Bollocks. It's a science. There are steps, procedures, planning and checks to be done in running a power station. It is not an art in any way whatsoever.

Actually being in a specialised environment there are certain things having knowledge doesn't trump experience, being able to look at something and go hmm this is going to cause a problem in a bit is more of an art then a science. You just begin to learn how certain systems work and the nuances in logs, hell even in noises the systems make.

 

[itareanlnotani]

If Eskom consisted of one power station, and we were only focussing on the technical part, then true.

Eskom's scope is huge, generation, transmission and distribution. Diverse (and largely outdated) generation technologies, with a few newer ones in the mix, it needs very careful management of staff and skill levels, plenty of interesting dynamics, the younger ones don't want to work on the older tech. So how to create and maintain a motivated workforce, and please unions. Then on the finance side there is the demands of NERSA, the PFMA, bonds to finance new capacity, government interference and the demands of government legislation -- AA, BEE. prescriptive procurement policies, thievery, stealing and corruption. And then the pressures from the environmentalists, the Gretas of the world. Add to that the consequences of extremely poor decisions in the past, a bloated inexperienced and useless workforce, billions in debt and poor generation fleet maintenance. It's a whole lot more than just the technical side, that's the easy part.

Pulling all of that together and plotting the right way forward would be an art form, he did refer to a "Power System", and his comment is true for any large, bloated and diverse company that has been decimated by Marxism.

Nepotism.

FTFY.

 

[RonSwanson]

Nepotism.

FTFY.

That too yes, and there are many other isms that we all could add.

 

[The_MAC]

How exactly are they going to explain this to the unions?

Sorry guys, your people are not good enough..

 

[mpdjhb]

The ANC pushed them out to meet quotas - they won't be coming back. Even if they are not all retired already.
This is exactly what happened in Zim too - kick out certain demographics, find out way too late that the people left have no skills and then try and get back the people you tossed to the curb.... (and to be clear that is not because certain people are too stupid etc, it's just that you need apprenticeships under experienced people and experience gained yourself over time to get those skills - there is no short cutting "on the job experience")

 

[PaulMurkin]

“Running a power system is an art, not a science. It needs a huge amount of skill base. It needs people with experience,” Davis said.

Bollocks. It's a science. There are steps, procedures, planning and checks to be done in running a power station. It is not an art in any way whatsoever.

All of this was known by 1944 already, its not an art... its standard textbook engineering

 

[PaulMurkin]

It won't. My brother was an Eskom employee. Emigrated to Aus many years ago. One of the service providers around Eskom tried to get him to come back. Negotiations stalled when they could only match his Aus salary, which on its own wasn't enough enticement to stop building a life in a first world country

I have a friend who works at Orion in New Zealand... Eskom has tried 3 times to get him to come back to Megawatt park. He tells me it gives him such joy to tell them to go fvck themselves every single time.
They retrenched him to make space for an ANC cadre, one of Zuma's family.

 

[PaulMurkin]

Eskom- you reap what you sow- fok jou en die ANC tesame!

 

[Herr der Verboten]

De Ruyter must bring back South African skills — Former Eskom finance chief

Eskom should bring old skills back from overseas to help train the technicians looking after power plants now, according to former Eskom financial chief Mick Davis.

Davis was reportedly blocked from becoming Eskom CEO by the ANC in 1994. He is now a British politician, was awarded the rank of Knight Bachelor, and works in government.

So why isn't he singling out the ANC and its racial policies? or is it easier to talk about eskom or its current head avoiding the obvious?

 

[PaulMurkin]

So why isn't he singling out the ANC and its racial policies? or is it easier to talk about eskom or its current head avoiding the obvious?

Hence why I said, he is salty...

 

[TheChamp]

You guys should check that the stories don't become too legendary too fast, pace yourself, we still have the whole December ahead of us.

 

[My_King]

Mick : bring old skills back from overseas
ANC : So you are asking for Cubans

 

[PaulMurkin]

You guys should check that the stories don't become too legendary too fast, pace yourself, we still have the whole December ahead of us.

True that, but I am planning to take a break from online activity over December so maybe I should indulge now?

 

[My_King]

Eskom- you reap what you sow- fok jou en die ANC tesame!

And the people who wanted you in power

 

[TheChamp]

True that, but I am planning to take a break from online activity over December so maybe I should indulge now?

But I will be taking leave over December and part of the plan is to wake up every day and read the legendary stories, you are messing up with my plans...

 

[Kornhub]

Even people who are still here will never go back because of the way they were treated.

 

[Takkies]

With BEE in place, this is IMPOSSIBLE.
I don't believe they would come back.
The previous skilled staff, hate Eskom.