Minister of Electricity: This is not a good start, Minister!

MINISTER OF ELECTRICITY
THIS IS NOT A GOOD START, MINISTER!

By Gerhard Papenfus

The Minister of Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, is reportedly currently leading an eight-day assessment tour to numerous power stations in the country. 

On Tuesday, while visiting the Kusile power station, he stated that “so-called corruption” has nothing to do with the country’s power crisis and that, in fact, infrastructure defaults of a technical nature, were the root cause of the electricity crisis.

Really? Not more than a month prior, former Eskom CEO, in a televised interview stated that the problems in the country’s power utility were squarely rooted in corruption. Even the Zondo Commission’s State Capture Report identified billions of rands worth of dodgy contracts associated with the utility. 

The Minister, after two weeks on the job, decides that he knows better; on the basis of what he was told. Nobody expects a miracle from the Minister, but even with the bar already set low, this is disappointing. The Zondo Commission and Mr De Ruyter merely confirmed what all South Africans already knew: the entire Eskom enterprise is interspersed with corruption. Corruption lies at the core of Eskom’s predicament.

The Minister’s utterances do not inspire confidence. His statement that he would not hesitate to address corruption, should it surface, should therefore be viewed with extreme circumspection.

Gerhard Papenfus is the Chief Executive of the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA).

For more information:
NEASA Media Department
media@neasa.co.za