Eskom ... is there ANY chance? In CPT there is

General Discussions
1155

One theory I was suggested is that Mantashe, not looking so favorable, even Union booing him off stage, in light of what De Ruiter has been reporting the last while, saying it how it is, with Mantashe named a time or two ito renewables and bid-windows laying on his desk and whatnot.

Maybe the tightening of the coal contracts is also a factor …

Then this “Phalatio”, sorry typo, Phala, thing happens, Cyril needs some serious support.

So a trade could have been made, De Ruyter goes, Rama stays, and Mantashe is happier.

So I replied, IF that is a possibility, that would be awesome. It will look good, the “White man” is gone, he broke it, and as was speculated here the LS levels are dropped, ANC “fixes” it again!!!" running the equipment flat out. Man, it will look so good. ANC saves the day!!! BEE has also won again, cause it looked so bad for the ANC to put a white man in charge of a very massive problem out of desperation.

BUT … the Unions are already on edge, losing memberships due to disgruntled members stop paying their fees, the higher unemployment because of LS, the booing thus a teeny tiny huge change.

So when LS levels 6-8 become reality in a few months, with more union members losing their jobs, Eskom maybe face retrenchments en-mass, what does the ANC think will then happen with the Unions/ ANC “relationship”? Mantashe has been booed off stage once …

So yes, Andre forced out, as Schubadue says, it could be the best thing to annihilate the ANC once and for all. All by their won hand. Yes, I’m using a very strong word … it is that bad for them.

The rand retreats … that international guy (forgot his name) that is here to look at the Eskom debt owed, on request of the international funds, him saying he can name top ANC people for criminal charges …

O man, this is better than any and all soapies in existence …

Personally, I want to see what Big Business is now going to do. Are they going to step up against Government?

1156

“Mantashe is Ramaphosa’s key to a second term as ANC President because he is a streetfighter with steel-tipped elbows.”

Rest my case.

Good summary of it all.

1157

Rand retreats…

Finally! I’ve been wondering last night how come it is not moving. Currency markets are open 24/7, and at that time the NYSE would have been in full swing. Any way, I do expect it will slowly zig-zag it’s way upwards.

The absolute best thing that can happen now, and I mean “best” in a rather cynical way, is that around April or May next year, we tank into stage 8 or higher. Again, in a very schadenfreude/leedvermaak way of looking, watching the squirming as they try to avoid the inevitable result of a hiding at the election box is going to be highly amusing.

The worst outcome would be if they manage to keep it on a level until April 2024.

I think the sabotage is more insidious. It is a kind of “job creation”. You break something, then your buddy gets money to fix it, and you get your kickback. Never let a good crisis go to waste. If necessary, create a crisis. If this cynical view of mine is correct, the sabotage is not going to stop “now that they got what they wanted”. And again, in a very cynical way, this could be good news. I’m almost begging. Please please PLEASE overplay your hand. Make it clear to everyone, once and for all!

Then again, as @jykenmynie said earlier, people don’t remember for very long.

I’d read it!

Again, I have a simpler theory here. He probably realised he was putting his family through the wringer. Sometimes, in the dead of night, with your wife sleeping next to you, you think back of the simpler days, and you ask: Do I really need this sh*t? Especially considering, as I’ve heard, that death threats and personal security was the order of some days.

1158

For me it is clear. Gordhan, Mantashe and “Phalatio” situation, RET and “who’s the next Pressi” the “trigger” for this fiasco.

Cause from anywhere and everywhere, out of De Ruiter’s own mouth, he was 100% committed and dedicated to sorting this “thing” out.

He got a LOT right already and was building up even more “steam”, pun intended.

And there it starts …

https://www.msn.com/en-za/news/other/now-that-de-ruyter-is-gone-eskom-can-stop-load-shedding-says-matshela-koko/ar-AA15h0Vx

From your “schadenfreude/leedvermaak” (and I’m 100% with you on that) to “the best thing that can happen” …

1159

Koko is an idiot. He tells everyone he is an engineer. He has a B.Sc in Chemistry from UCT (and an MBA, from much later). I am confident in saying a B.Sc is not a B.Eng, because I myself hold a B.Sc.

If Koko is an engineer, then so am I. And I am better qualified too. I have something I can put in brackets behind the Latin acronym.

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1160

Then the only question remaining is: How many dedicated followers/believers do YOU have? :rofl:

THAT is the problem today …

1161

Unfortunately only you bunch of suckers on this forum… :joy:

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1162

And post CV19 we are all reevaluated the LIFE/work balance…!

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1163

Main points raised by Kganki Matabane:

  • Despite De Ruyter clearing out past debt books, that isn’t the purpose of his role. His purpose is to give electricity to the country
  • The biggest problem that South Africa faces is load shedding – the country is losing R4 billion a day
  • Economic recovery cannot happen in an environment where the lights are off more than they are on
  • Small businesses are getting the short end of the stick as many have been forced to shut down
  • The youth unemployment rate has increased
  • Eskom needs a turnaround specialist
  • De Ruyter hasn’t taken responsibility
  • The blame for load shedding and the lack of electricity shouldn’t be on the government, but on the CEO appointed to run Eskom

Epic … but that is how it is being weaved, touched up, scented, misdirected, then passed on for consumption.

1164

BBC is also a bunch of idiots… sorry to say.

The only thing they said that is worth talking about, is the need for a turnaround specialist. That, and money. Heaps and heaps of money, which we don’t have.

Welcome to the great culture of dumbdown.

1165

Perhaps that movie Idiocracy is a look into our collective futures…

1166

Ugh I had to explain to my kids (10 and 9 years old - the 4 year old was in bed) what “boiling the frog slowly” means last night after I read of De Ruyter’s resignation.

At this point I also wish for a stage 8 or blackout so that we can get to a real action plan faster. Rather than years and years of slowly dragging everything into the mud.

1167

Selection_254

1168

That didn’t take long…

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1169

I can believe it. For a few days this month my neighbourhood had no load shedding either (in the middle of stage 6), and I don’t know this with 100% certainty, but my own cause-and-effect thinking (which may be flawed) connects another story that was around: Water. We got an exemption to pump water.

A water pump failed, one of two, which meant that the remaining one had to run long periods to supply enough water. So our neighbourhood got an exemption. The moment the problem was sorted, halfway through a load-shedding slot on a Saturday morning, we were dumped right back into darkness…

1170

This Eskom thing makes me think of this old Looney Tunes episode, with Daffy finally firing the last employee of the company and then closing the door on a dark room.

I can imagine Eskom finally dropping the last power station, shrugging the shoulders and saying, “well, that’s all of them”, and then walking out the building.

1171

Indeed this is exactly what was found in the recent case of a contractor who fixed one thing at a plant, but also deliberately damaged a bearing so that it would lose it’s oil, seize, and the generator would have to be shut down whilst another repair was made. He did it to create work for his company.

Another scam that was reported on was to do with diesel deliveries. The way it is supposed to work is that the tanker goes in over a weigh bridge, offloads the diesel, is weighed again on the way out, and the difference is what Eskom pays for.

What they hadn’t foreseen was that the tanker driver would get weighed going in, then go through a hole in the fence to a neighbouring farm, offload all the diesel there, and then get weighed again on the reverse journey. Eskom pay the supplier for nothing, the driver and the farmer are probably in cahoots and have a nice little earner.

What is so bad about this is that it’s not on one front. There are not a small number of internal saboteur agitators to be found and weeded out, it’s coming at Eskom from all sides. They now have to suspect every supplier, every contractor, and look for multiple scams, not one big, all encompassing scam.

These scamsters are motivated only by their back pocket. They are not going to let up just because de Ruyter is gone. If anything they are going to be encouraged.

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1172

I just picked up another interesting little inconsistency. From this article, this is what Mantashe said:

Any other government can be overthrown for this level of load shedding. Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, is agitating for the overthrow of the state. If it is not addressed, then the state will be failing to do what it needs to do… load shedding is urgent; it must be attended to sooner than later.

So what he is saying, is that it is the state’s responsibility to provide power. Contrast that with what BBC was saying, from the article @TheTerribleTriplet quoted earlier:

The blame for load shedding and the lack of electricity shouldn’t be on the government, but on the CEO appointed to run Eskom.

I mean in this respect Mantashe is actually right (he’s taking responsibility, even if doing it WHILE dishing out blame), but it again shows you just how out of touch the BBC is.

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1173

And there it starts … good.

Mantashe is an idiot, he went too far. Gordhan and Rama … you lost this one.
BBC is backing the wrong horse …

We need Stage 8 … it is time to topple this Government once and for all with LS, exactly as that idiot Mantashe accused De Ruyter of.

1174

OK, so again I have that little red light going off in the back of my head: Is there another way to look at it?

The problem seems to be that he used the word “agitate”. What if he had said this instead, would it have been as insulting?

Many a government would have been overthrown with a failure of this magntitude. Eskom, by not attending to load shedding, may well contribute to such an eventuality. If it is not addressed, then the state will be failing in its duty. Load shedding is an urgent matter; it must be attended to sooner rather than later.

See how I just rewrote that part of his speech and made it better? In the comment section on one of the news site, another spectator opined that Mantashe had a Trump moment, speaking off the cuff, while perhaps not being a terribly good orator.

It could well be that Mantashe didn’t mean to say what many understood… though that is no excuse. When you are in the public eye, you should mind your words. And besides, I think it was merely the last straw.