Wait, what … did he just do a 180!?
Geez.
After watching @Village_Idiot 's linked video yesterday, I swung a little to the other side again. I think our minister of electricity may not be the simpleton the media makes him out to be. So… I’m going to say no. He didn’t do a 180. He’s always been saying we’re in for a hard time.
Thanks by the way, @Village_Idiot , for being a counter-voice in all this. Critical thinking does behoove us to always ask: Is there another way of looking at this? I haven’t always been doing that.
I think mostly, we stop doing that because with all the good will in the world by people with good intentions (which I think Ramakgopa has!), the bad guys always manages to snatch defeat from the clutches of victory in the end.
This should be interesting:
“SA households are in for another blow. The National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) has proposed a 15.1% hike in municipal electricity tariffs from July, which is on the back of the bulk supply tariff increase for municipalities of 18.4%. Business Day TV spoke to Nersa’s executive manager of electricity, Zingisa Mavuso, about the latest proposed hike.”
Here is the thing on that … Ramakgopa’s job is to sort Eskom. So yeah, he is going to take the flack.
Keep in mind: (some author’s freedom please)
- De Ruyter was the first to spill the beans, and he got sacked for it.
- Ramakgopa took the job, then:
2.1) made a few silly comments,
2,2) made promises everyone knows he cannot keep,
2.3) gave impossible timeframes, Mantashe too (interesting how quiet he is since the De Ruyter’s fiasco)
2.4) talking past one of the actual core problems, the criminal networks.
And do remember, he has bosses that caused it all the last 2 decades, who cannot be made to look bad, ever.
So no, he gets NO slack. Just like De Ruyter got none, being the first to spill the beans.
Now @Sarel.Wagner is going to “take you on” too. 
AND last but not least …
In the first highlighted part, give him cudos.
The 2nd one, the part that is his job … FIX THE SHIITE! say I.
O, lest I forget …
Yes… but remember… these were refurbished in the early 2000s. Camden and Grootvlei (along with Komati) were the stations Eskom unmothballed from 2003 onwards. Camden was done end of 2008, Grootvlei by July 2011, and Komati’s last unit was done in 2014.
They are old stations, yes, but they are also very very new. I mean, you are welcome to make a case that age doesn’t have the biggest impact (and you are probably right too!), but these stations are not the best poster candidates.
Edit: If anything, these stations are an example of what a well-designed new-ish build can do without the massive criminal elements. Camden was basically finished before the Zuma Coup, and all three of them likely had the tenders, planning, material set up before the corruption really started tearing through Eskom. These stations tell a story… just not the one we’re being told.
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Exactly … the criminal element since Zuma … we would not be here if that was stopped, as those two stations prove in a way, as you say.
@plonkster … you are not my barometer anymore, nope.
While back you got a wee bit rattled here, nearly “swapped” sides, and then you “swapped” back. 
Eskom is fooked under the ANC rule. Finish en klaar.
NOTHING the ANC Comrades say about any and all SOEs can ever again be trusted, unless they apply Radical “Economic” Transformation on themselves, consistently, first. Changes that actually solve the “gemors” (mess, just a more powerful word in Afr) they created.
I do not think that means a 15%+18% increase. Based on the 18% increase on the bulk rate municipalities purchase at from eskom, those municipalities that do not have adequate data/will, or whatever, to do cost of supply studies as part of their tariff applications receive a guide from Nersa what rate increase they could apply to municipal customers - that rate is so far suggested as 15.1%.
the actual discussion doc.
Sad really… Under a “new and different political” dispensation this is not going to be resolved. Firstly the incumbents knows that if someone else rises into power, they will truly be fooked. All will, well maybe not all but a lot, be revealed and lotsa skeletons will come home to roost. They will fight both and nail, fair and unfair, to stay in power. Lie and steal are all up on the plate.
So what happens if they loose power, no pun here… The looting will escalate, a free for all as a last grasp me thinks. That will leave the plant even worse off than now. It will likely be so run down and stripped, not much will be left. Now watch how quickly the first Coal fired plant will be robbed to the ground, remember the mine fiasco? Aurora if I call correctly. Rinse and repeat.
So the new political class and the intelligentsia plus the elites will have nothing much to work with here. but only time will tell, my crystal ball is Charcoal Grey so I cannot see that far into it 
SteenkoolbalGroetnis
R54 if you buy the fancy full cream milk at Woolies.
Another variable probably also being that they are some of the smaller units. It is interesting to see how in Eskom’s glory days they initially struggled when scaling up the plant sizes.
granted the engineers did brilliant and innovative work to make it work in the end
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I think that is what the reasonable man does (well, in as much as I can consider myself reasonable 
). You incorporate the new information, and that moves you on the spectrum.
On a scale of 1 (we’re on a fast track to Zimbabwe v2) to 10 (Everything is going to be fine within 24 months and the ANC will rule till kingdom come), I’ve been around a 3 recently, but our resident Village non-idiot ( 
) has me back at about a 4 now.
What Sarel and I said …
deleted
Quoting from a year ago:
Mar '22
You bet it will, likely more than double…. The current energy crunch, wait for 2023, it will be a worse energy crunch by then.
Short sigthed
So, what is our outlook today?
AfdraendeGroetnis
That Forecast vs Generating Capacity looks old, think this is the new one?
https://energytalk.co.za/uploads/default/original/2X/a/aac1a23cc69302778aa71780bab747bc940e43a5.png
They keep on updating it, this was from their latest doc here
Groetnis
Bugger, in a week or so it “improved”.