Eskom’s dalliance with blackouts down to the “hubris” of Ramaphosa’s ANC

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“We can’t think like Africans in Africa generally. We are in Johannesburg. This is Johannesburg. It is not some national road in Malawi.” It was not that long ago that our boisterous former state president, Jacob Zuma, said those words that were accompanied with laughter for about 10 years. 

As diesel generators now hum across the city for the better part of two weeks, the biblical proverb “Pride cometh before the fall” has been proved true once again.

The continent for the past fifty years has struggled to maintain and expand what was a rather limited infrastructure dividend from colonial years as capital markets quickly dried because of the prejudicial view that financial capitals such as New York or London have long had of most of sub-Saharan African economies. 

Hubris, that was and continues to be a guiding light as to how the ANC governs modern-day South Africa for much of the past almost 30 years, has led us down a similar path. 

This wasn’t always the case. At a certain point, capital markets were falling over themselves to fund the expansion of our electricity grid as Western economies struggled to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis. Today that capital is a whole lot more expensive, especially for an economy like ours that has drifted if not contracted over the past decade if you consider our population growth. 

Adding a further layer of complexity to a final and long-term fix to the question of our electricity deficit is that Europe faces its own electricity crisis at this very moment. Russia’s war with Ukraine, which has escalated further this week, has the old continent scrambling for alternatives to the cheap gas supply from Putin’s Russia.

In response to this crisis, Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and the poster child of green and sustainable energy, has nationalised the country’s largest gas importer to avert a collapse of its energy sector. 

Securing a reliant energy future has moved to forefront of all concerns in not only Europe, but in Asia and other geographies across the world.

Decisiveness will be critical, something that a still very proud governing party has been lacking in its 14-year struggle to at least ensure Eskom remained in a sound operational and financial position. What was always certain and known from as far back as 1998 was that a healthy Eskom simply wouldn’t be able to meet demand in decades to come because of the growth of the population and in turn the economy. In 1998, South Africa had a population of 43-million, today we are above 60-million. In another 20 years, you deduce how much larger it will be.

The fact that we are skating ever closer to blackout position yet again, should come as absolutely no surprise, especially for the governing party. Blinded by its hubris, it’s been blind to these icebergs long foreseen.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.