CERTAIN arrogant and unrepentant ministers in government have again managed to avoid any accountability for the Eskom fiasco and the South African public have been forced to come to their rescue. Eskom, it seems, needs a 53 per cent price increase to not only fund the additional costs of generating electricity using open-cycle gas turbines and increased coal costs, but to also remain profitable.
The “scheduled outages” and unplanned load- shedding, together with the 10% reduction expected from residential and commercial consumers, will negatively affect Eskom‘s annual turnover and profitability, and we must pay for this.
The proposed price increase obviously has the support of government since it would have had to rescue Eskom if the onus was not pushed on to the consumers, clearly ignoring the fact that these increases will threaten job creation, the economy and will ensure senior management of Eskom their performance bonuses for next year.
Unfortunately, all the propaganda from government and Eskom will not change public perceptions or the lack of confidence in their ability to improve matters, nor will it change negative attitudes towards power savings. Expect more violent demonstrations against this incompetent utility.
