Google Richard.
As Miller said, Eskom/SA, he has never seen the scale of the f…up ever in his career spanning decades. African countries, my guess, have been through some corruption, and wars, and they now want to fix it themselves.
Never ever trust a political party that calls each other “Comrades”.
The moment someone says “it is funded by George Soros” I immediately distrust them. Sorry. He’s too much of a Boogyman. Him and Bill Gates. They are blamed by everyone. It may be true, but I’d like to see the paperwork.
Google says RWW is run by PFAW (People for the American Way), which wikipedia says is partially funded by Soros’ Open Science Institute, so it is partially true… but that’s like an immediate “off” switch for me when someone drags in Soros or Gates to make an argument. Sorry… the anti-vaxers did that to me.
Technically there are many. There must be, seeing as there isn’t really a line from here to Egypt… 
Many of these grids are probably not very big, but they don’t have to be, because the economies they service aren’t very big. This question comes up often on social media when someone gets on their soap box (a bit like I am doing now… I am aware) and tells the world that “we” should stop powering these other countries…
Ahem. Namibia has an economy roughly the same size as Soweto, and they pay their bills. You want to disconnect them? Zimbabwe gets less than 1% of our energy… cutting them off does nothing. Additionally, even though the bulk of energy is used locally, we end up importing more than we export. Withdrawing from SAPP (the Southern African Power Pool) will hurt us.
Edited: I think a heap of my info was wrong so I took it out.
New research… Eskom was a net-exporter until 2020. Which means if Eskom folds the other guys will have shortages. Namibia imports 60% of their energy, the bulk of it from Eskom. It is part of “bilateral agreements”, which means Nampower sells to SA too (mostly Hydro from Ruacana)… but thumbsuck, if Eskom folds, Namibia will probably have the equivalent of a stage 6 to stage 8 load-shedding.
We need to compare SA with other independent African countries.
It doesn’t help to cry into our beer bemoaning how bad this or that is.
FYI: For this group Australia would love to have you…
This looks interesting! Graphical representation of how grids are connected. I think the data is incomplete, it shows way too little light-blue lines in South Africa, but it is a start.
It looks like the West African grid might be a good one to compare with.
Yes, according to this Hermanus and Stilbaai has no electricity
But I like that it shows the various grid systems. There is a very clear one in West Africa. Then you have the East African block, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania. Which has links to SAPP via Zambia. Then you have the North East bit, Ethiopia, Sudan. And The North African grid, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco.
The thing about all of these grids, is that they don’t cover rural areas. I cannot speak for all of Africa of course, but when you read up on it: In West Africa only 8% of rural people have access to electricity, and overall something like 42%.
In Namibia, only around 50% of the population has access to electricity at all.
In South Africa that number is 80%.
80% of the time.
Of which only 20% pay for the service 
Again, if we could do the same with Eskom as with any other business…
Most businesses don’t survive step one. The rats leave the ship, the creditors want their money, the employees run for safety, it’s all gone after step 1.
For SAA… they somehow got through all 3 stages, and it is still a disaster.
What would this mean for Eskom? Well, it means admitting that only 50% of what they’ve got (maybe that is optimistic) is worth saving. Cut the losses off the rest. Scrap it. Retrench at least half the employees. On the upside, the thieves will also run. And then the country has to accept that we only have about half of the power we used to have.
That’s what would normally happen… but as Sarel repeatedly reminds us, that is not how it works in these parts.
Essentially we have around 20GWh of salvageable plant left, if you ask my estimation. Out of a reported 58GWh.
It’s pretty much a case of: If you want power, you will have to pay the private sector to get it.
The momentum for the Western Cape to secede is at a peak. In a poll more than half said they will vote yes, and 65% is in favour of a referendum. And this is one of those things where playing the R-card doesn’t work, because there is simply not enough of the usual scapegoats around (only 18%). The entire province is sick of it…
Pretty much what Miller said, as SA / Eksom cannot borrow anything anymore really.
Only a plan, a lot of those will be kaput before retirement age, it’s like an alcoholic…
Groetnis
Hence the “SA has 5 years max”.
Daily Friend can give some interesting views, me with my annoyance on Big Business’s inaction on Eskom …
An interesting paragraph in Martin’s piece that caught my attention in the Eskom context:
That is of course the fallacy of the false alternative. It is possible to be both a liberator, and a temporary custodian.
In fact, Nelson Mandela embodied that sentiment clearly when he refused to be president for a second term.
It just hit me like a fist between the eyes.
ANC is so friendly with that despot Putin, not voting against him twice (?) on an international level. Allowing Putin’s bestie’s yacht to dock in Cpt. The joint military exercises with Russia … what can possibly go wrong?
… international creditors are now moving in to get their money back.
