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Number 1

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mullet_fish
Regular Contributor
Do you think he will handle later? I hope so as the economy and the RAND needs some "sense" of stability.
13 REPLIES 13
cheapcheap
Regular Contributor
unfortunately not with this circus we have called a "government"....
samoa
Super Contributor
Nr.1 do not have the capacity to influence anything to be good/positive etc.Expect a further drop.Only a power outage in Cape Town can save us from further embarresment before the world.
alleycat
Contributor
A group of baboons together is called a congress. Makes sense now.
cheapcheap
Regular Contributor
he's gonna need a 9 pack of 2 ply next to him when he speaks!!!....and we'll blame everything on apartheid....it's mos easy man....!!! more pathetic bunch of criminals I've never seen...and the developed world , like Tony Blair is starting to bring this to everyone's attention.
Penny_Pincher
Super Contributor
In the land of the blind one eye is king....I suspect the educational system will let to be further deteriorate as to ensure the uneducated masses are "indoctrinated" and "manipulated" to ensure their crosses are made in the desired places on the ballot.
Vypir
Contributor
Their biggest victory: Making all of us blame Eskom for the Power issues... Eskom is not a company... It has no shareholders. It does what the government tells them to do. Eskom's planners have been trying to build power stations since 1998 - this meant at the time a 4% increase in tariffs which the government at the time refused (1999 was an election year) LAst year the government incentives to Eskom was designed to prevent load shedding (in an election year). The result was: No maintenance, over utilization and power stations falling apart. Eskom squeezed 5000 extra Megawatts out of its fleet without bringing a new power station online - this is exceptional considering a normal power station will deliver between 3000 and 4000 Megawatt! But that squeeze came at a price - Load shedding in the year after the elections. Of course: Brian Dames got his bonus for preventing load-shedding and then he resigned... He did what any CEO would have done - what he was paid for: and please, he wasn't paid an exorbitant salary - Compare his salary with other CEOs of companies the size that Eskom is - if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. The problem is: Eskom gets direction from the state, and not from itself - we cannot blame Eskom or its employees for doing what they were paid to do - would any of us have done it differently?
Penny_Pincher
Super Contributor
Eskom engineers were spot on with their predictions on max capacity and when such would reached. It is not Eskom who placed a moratorium on themselves in respect of constructing additional power stations. They are not entirely blameless but I believe there is a lot of selective memory being applied here, especially if you are in government.
SimonPB
Valued Contributor
just to be picky your statement that "Eskom is not a company... It has no shareholders." is wrong .. it is a legal company, a SOE and does have shareholders, government ..
AP
Regular Contributor
The silver lining is that our dear government, Eskom, no. 1, etc. is forced in a corner, stripped and put under tremendous pressure to do the right thing for the first time in a long time. This is probably true democracy that is busy shaping (irrespective how uncomfortable this is). It is much better experiencing discomfort in short to medium term to allow more sustained growth and change in the long term. The building has to be get broken down allowing a new one to be erected in its place.
Rams
Super Contributor
The highlight last nite was the look on Chads face...
Vypir
Contributor
You're right of course - the point is that its decisions are made by government and for South Africans to walk around calling it Eishkom and Eksdom is very funny (and typical of South Africans) but it distracts from governments, and let's be blunt - the ANC's responsibility for this mess. Eskom was used for party political gain instead of for the country's benefit. The problem with power utilities is that they actually don't work as unregulated private companies because of the inflexibility of demand i.e. no matter the price (within reasonable limits) the consumer's demand won't change much. When California privatized their supply, the building of new power stations stopped immediately - why would a company spend billions to increase supply that will drive down the price on a demand that does not change much. In fact, some companies faked down-time to artificially cause a supply shortage that increased the price 20-fold. The results were brown-outs and eventually the state's government had to interfere. The privatization of Eskom without very good planning would be extremely dangerous...
topgun
Super Contributor
We have a plan for dealing with the matter. It is a good plan, great plan, and we are financing it. So it is not like we donÂ’t know what to do. Well, there is your answer...crisis is obviously also a Western concept http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/energy/2015/02/13/energy-a-challenge-not-a-crisis-says-zuma
Vypir
Contributor
This reminds me of a funeral I attended years ago when a dignified (and slightly portly) Afrikaans lady slipped and fell into the grave with a loud "O bliiiikkksem" resulting in absolute chaos... For the rest of the day people were seen crying and giggling alternately.