Sikonathi Mantshantsha
Told you I like the guy.
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And then this just in …
His keep quiet for x time clause in his termination agreement has now expired.
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the current bonus headlines originate from comments Ramakgopa made at Arnot where he said, speaking to workers:
“Continue the good work … the better the performance, the better the incentives. You’ll see it in your pockets. Once you give us the kind of progress, the kind of improvement that we want, you’ll see your families will be happy, you are going to enjoy a better Christmas…”
the clip does not show what was said prior to, or after this.
“Bonus” also came up at the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises where he indicates that incentives are connected to improved performance.
We are also told through the media that these bonuses are Ramakgopa playing Father Christmas and that Eskom has not paid bonusses since 2017 and no one knows where the money for it will come from (I can’t find where he allegedly indicated that it should/could come from part of the remaining OCGT budget).
From Eskom’s integrated report 2022
These bonusses were started in 2021 and was explained to SCOPA as:
The production bonus was confined to people involved in actual production. Executives did not qualify for the production bonuses. It was linked to very strict stretch performance targets. The way that the scheme had been designed was that it was self-funding. If money was paid out, then it would be less than the overall value delivered by the employees who qualified for that bonus.
The Eskom 2023 annual financials appear to have an amount of R31million for “production bonusses”.
Here is Sikonathi Mantshantsha explaining/defending(?) the R127 million payment during 2021 and indicating that they at the time considered it effective at increasing performance.
Populace and cheap politicking goes all directions. The “smart meter secret funder” story comes to mind. That story appears to have as basis mostly the term “major financier” becoming “secret funder”. The particular politician as main impetus of the “secret funder” line appears to base much on media reports but might have missed this one:
To ensure accessibility, the government has secured a partnership with a major financier to facilitate the provision of smart meters and provide financing options such as tax rebates for solar panels, as announced in February by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
These finance options include taking out loans and paying them back over a period of five years.
The municipalities will put aside a budget for poor residents to supply solar panels and solar geysers.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa will also partner with the government to facilitate the roll-out of the smart meters and provide financing for poorer households.
The smart meter implementation is also likely very far off and will face many hurdles (i.e. court action to try and prevent it) - especially getting the roughly 3 million municipal meters as part of the programme.
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So, smoke and mirrors…and a looming election
Difficult to see thru the fog…Village_Idiot helps. 
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Digging a little, it seems this might go back to July and the DA’s shadow minister of electricity (Samantha Graham-Maré) quest of trying to find out how they plan on funding this. After getting no answers, and then hearing that a financier was found… well that was just handing ammunition to that section of the media that thrives on rage, wasn’t it? 
Stage 6 it is…
BekosingswaardigeGroetnis
CoCT, 1 stage off all Black Friday only!!!
Back to 6 tomorrow.
Get it while it’s hot!
amazing how well the media can run when given a nudge (3min needed).
the need for consultation and insight to tendering etc. are all valid points but sprinkeling in some questionable information as fact does not do much to distinguish them (political parties) from one another.
“We are uncertain whether there is a smart meter project and how it will work but are not getting answers” is a different message from “with smart meters you can be load shed even outside loadshedding time and they are not willing to tell us who the secret funder is”.
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official explanation for current stage 6 is unexpected load increase of about 1.5GW from yesterday, coupled with low reserves (Ankerlig down to about half capacity and pumped storage must be replenished). Apparently unplanned losses are actually at about 15.5GW and partial losses around 7GW.
And there are no diesel ships off Mossel Bay… 
No, there are quite a few…
A few off-forum folks joked in the last month, “Watch, Dec is LS month”.
It was not “unexpected”.
I do not know where 320MW would make a dent in SA’s generation problem.
Not to forget the issue ito the lack of transmission network back to central SA, stopping the coastal Bid Windows from going online - but Karpower gets the go-ahead.
Maybe Saldanha and surrounds benefit.
O well, matters none, it is done.
Now to add this fiasco with Eskom and CoCT doing its damnest to run a working province …
With tongue firmly in cheek… How do you stop CoCT from being a working efficient province, that contributes a huge % to the central Gov, being a working province?
You do this:
Anyone for lemonade?
The CIAG people say (this probably needs to be fact-checked) that the Western Cape contributes more to the state coffers than we get back for local spending. By cutting the budget as they did, one could argue that this ratio has been made worse… though again, someone with the time and knowledge probably needs to pull the numbers and compare before and after.
Politics versus engineers …
But that is not all … it is getting really worse, first VW, and now this …
Forget about the PR around Steenhuizen’s move, see what is to be seen:
The part we want to see:
https://twitter.com/Our_DA/status/1729070731299000723
Funny dat, them dominoes keeps on tumbling as the in the knows bump into them, they seemingly cannot see themselves sober from the power…
DronkenskapGroetnis
All the “mooi woorde” about LS “improvement”, the “Look Ma, the ANC is sorting it” (authors freedom please)… lovely man, lovely. Speak up, brag some more!!!
And a titbit for the Unions: Your membership contribution income is being put at “risk”. Vote for the ANC, “they” said.
There is an election coming … let’s see what ya all do now …the End is Nigh.