Stage 6. On a public holiday long weekend. In December. We are at Stage 8. Or higher …
Ok, this is getting very interesting.
So there is a whole lot more ongoings leading to De Ruyter resigning since the new Board was installed.
“Feels like” a clear strategy to get rid of him … and Gordhan seems to be smack in the middle of it …
The ANC has overplayed their hand, Andre and Jan have let SA in on what is going on, and no interpreter needs to speak to South Africans … they are “marked men”, but they will laugh the last laugh.
ANC has overplayed its hand big time.
The article above, I got on WA.
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This is no surprise. Typical CancER behaviour. There is no rescuing Eskom from itself or the politicians (same as the crime syndicates) or fixing Eskom. Same old playbook like all the SoE’s.
Groetnis
I’m presently contemplating something else. The topic of “emergent behaviour”.
Let me explain. Suppose you were to sit outside, and a flock of birds would show up in the skies. And you would look up and marvel at the pulsating shapes they make…
And maybe you will wonder to yourself, I wonder why they do that. And the more conspiratorial of us might even think some entity is secretly in control of their movements.
But the reality is that this is emergent behaviour. This is what happens due to simple patterns in the behaviour of birds, leading to this seemingly hard-to-explain behaviour.
Now why am I thinking about this? Well, because I think the demise of all the SOEs is similarly the result of emergent behaviour. Simple greed and criminal behaviour leads to an outcome that makes you wonder if perhaps there is a sinister plan behind it all…
If only there was a single sinister plan behind it all. Then we could catch that guy, jail him, and then it would all be over. Yes?
NO sadly…
Their isn’t just one guy (or girl) - There are thousands (and more in the informal sector benefiting).
Our unemployment rate isn’t going to make all the Guys and Girls just disappear. No income means you have to “hunt and gather”.
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Reading another article, two things jumped up …
At a signing ceremony for new projects, Mantashe ‘stated on camera that “Eskom, by not attending to load-shedding, is actively agitating for the overthrow of the state”. This is a verbatim allegation of treason.’
And …
At a press briefing yesterday, De Ruyter reminded us that increasing Eskom’s generation capacity was ‘not within its remit’. Meaning, it was someone else’s job. And that someone else is none other than Mantashe, who managed to deliver exactly 0 MW of additional capacity to Eskom in the last three years.
And…
Gordhan aimed more barbs at Mantashe when he discussed the conversion of open-cycle gas turbine power stations to run on natural gas instead of diesel: ‘We are doing more talking than delivering. All those responsible for the delivery [read: Mantashe] must get on with the job at hand.’
Mantashe’s name keeps on popping up … ZERO delivery.
And that Gordhan, yeah … no comment … yet.
The article if it is of interest:
Someone on WA said: Hier kom 'n burgeroorlog. Hulle vermoor mekaar nou al. Gaan erger word en ons in die middel.
Yeah, the ANC pulling itself apart Eskom just in the way … ons raak rergi nou goed gatvol.
What the IRR said:
The IRR concluded: ‘The alternative is to remove De Ruyter by metaphorically obliterating the independence of his office. No matter how capable the woman or man may be that replaces him, they will know, as all South Africans will know, that the moment they become inconvenient to a politician they can be removed by a stunning falsehood with no support from those sworn to serve and protect.’
We do not have enough prisons, cannot build enough prisons. Besides the SAPS and Justice systems people will have to be locked up first…
Groetnis
Look, there are factions, the most criminal one, also the faction with the most money, will Win. It’s all about control of the money, and the criminal syndicates. No wonder people are talking civil war… Look at the Cape flats, gangland, x10 for what could happen.
Groetnis
Let’s see how this now goes … the “spat” is quite public, and with LS “really in your face”, lets see if this becomes 300k members … or better, none.
There’s another topic I’ve been pondering. So our friends at MyBB reported the alleged blunder made by De Ruyter in thinking a simple radio transmitter is a sophisticated spying device.
But here is the thing… how do we know the photo in that article is a photo of the actual device? The article said Eskom supplied the photo… but why would Eskom supply the photo? Why not George Fivaz, who actually inspected the board?
Look, the board in the picture has exactly two chips of interest. An STM32 microprocessor, and a radio transmitter chip that’s typically used in long range RFID applications: Consistent with a tracking device. Even an electronics amateur can look up the chip number… it seems like a weird thing to double down on.
Something tells me there is more to this story as well…
Not to mention, if I was a bad guy who wanted to know where you park at certain times of the day, a device like the one reported to be found could very well be used. The hand-wave “Volvo put it there” answer seems too convenient. If it was a device actually belonging to Tracker, they’d have the serial number in a database somewhere.
If there are no souls with integrity in your society you will not keep it on the straight and narrow. Our organisations have also become masters at doublespeak to justify their decisions.
I’ve had first hand experience of being targeted by management for being a threat to them and these are not reasonable people, that much I can assure you!
The Eskom Board said “…an interpreter is needed to communicate to South Africans”, so yes. 
Oh, so now they start …
https://www.businesslive.co.za/bloomberg/news/2022-12-17-army-guards-four-eskom-power-stations
De Ruyter asks for it, no, now he is fired … suddenly it is a good idea.
I forgot about this, was too young at the stage probably …
Today Eskom is worse off … also ANC.
Interesting how quiet the news cycle has gone now that Rama may still in “charge”, which is a good thing by the way compared to the alternatives at the moment.
This “Eksom spat” seriously “feels like” a compromise was made for Rama to stay in power when I sit and wonder why that has gone as quiet. With the LS levels 4 and 3 now “prominent” on ESP whilst keeping in mind that SA is holiday mode.
Feels like … "Look, we “fired” De Ruyter and the LS levels have dropped. We are deploying the military to selected “problem” power stations. See, we (ANC) fixed it … "
Soldiers to remain at Eskom power plants until sabotage threat subsides - SANDF?
Must say, come 2023 and Rama is indeed in charge, the cabinet gets reshuffled, man, the pressure “they” are going to face to keep the power on … good luck to “them”.
I know about CoJ asking for relief, political infighting is probably the main cause of not maintaining stuff. So in a different “bracket”.
So when a well-maintained city starts noting strain …
https://www.capetown.gov.za/Media-and-news/Non-stop load-shedding impacts City infrastructure
The City’s maintenance and management of its electricity network remains top-notch, however, the infrastructure takes a hammering due to the constant Eskom load-shedding at high levels. The damage to infrastructure often leads to prolonged outages and increased service requests.
So despite Eskom’s unions squeezing the grid supply to express their disapproval of Rama being reelected it seems this didn’t provide the desired outcome so has the (electricity) crisis been averted??
No, we’re in the Christmas shutdown where industry and business are offline. And we still don’t have enough to keep the lights on. The crisis is far from averted.
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“A minimum of 10 soldiers will be assigned to each of the four plants and further deployments will be announced in due course, he said.”
I wonder what they will monitor… ? They won’t have a clue!
I think a power station has MANY employees (Tutuka 2000?) so the ratio people to SANDF is massive!
Very true, but who out of those 2000 wants to be the first to fall?
Reminds me of a movie/book quote where the mother protects her child, armed with only a bread knife. She was up agains about 6 armed men.
They ask her how she will protect her child agains 6 armed men with only a bread knife, they will just kill here and take the child.
She said that that will happen, but she will not give him up without a fight, and yes, she will die, but not without taking one of them with her.
The men just stand there, knowing she is right, but non of them had the guts to make the first move. They all left eventually.
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