Eskom has no shame. A burden on consumers, a leaked report reveals it plans to push up its tariffs by 14.6% from year to year - this, soon after a 16% increase since 2010. With its outdated asset base, Eskom is squeezing high electricity tariffs from consumers for its capital expansion programme, currently boasting an escalation of profits to 60% (R13.2bn for 2011, compared with R8.4bn in 2010). Electricity tariffs have increased by 25.8%, way over the inflation rate. With an increase in group revenue from R91.4bn to R114.8bn, it still is alleged to have debt of more than R182bn.
Both Dawie Roodt (Chief Economist of the Efficient Group) and Michael Bagraim (President of the Cape Chamber of Commerce) strongly condemned the proposed increases claiming that Eskom is exploiting consumers for its failure to do effective long-term planning. Enjoying the monopoly over the electricity supply, it shuns competition by pushing smaller suppliers out of the market.
To crown it all, CEO Brian Dames's remuneration package is R8.3 compared with R7.5 the previous year; the total package for financial director Paul O'Flaherty is almost R5.5m, compared with almost R5m the previous year. The Executive team collectively earned around R34m, compared with R29m in 2010. More shamefully Eskom's officials live the high life while South Africans foot the bills for their inefficiency.
Recently spending R36 million on staff parties in addition to the exorbitant salaries for top management, Eskom needs to be marched out of office. Its Board and management paid themselves a whopping R54 million last year. Compensating big business for suspending production to relieve pressure on the electricity supply, ordinary citizens seem to be bearing the brunt of the utility's costs.
Eskom cheekily claims that remuneration packages comply with international benchmarks nogal, and that their increases are below the inflation rate. How easily we claim international yardsticks when we behave like third world tin pot dictators. SA might be classified as a middle income country but its high rates of unemployment, poverty and low productivity are surely third world. Can government, on these grounds, explain the rationale for providing management with bonuses when Eskom has a debt of R182bn and for spending R36 million on staff parties?
In 2010 the Konrad Adenauer Foundation took seven of South Africa's award winning public sector renewable energy and climate change projects to visit Germany to observe the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol from Chancellor Merkel's office right down to village level. We visited waste water treatment plants, photo voltaig parks, wind farms, solar energy projects, from national to state to village level. We saw entire villages powered by solar energy and wind farms.
We witnessed waste water treatment plants purify water before our very eyes. We marvelled at the electronic technology that detected water leaks over vast areas triggering off signals to the offices and cell phones of public officials saving municipalities kilolitres of water. One can hardly categorise Germany as a sun- and wind-endowed country. Yet South Africa, blessed with wind and sun galore, fails to make use of these natural assets.
What is wrong with South Africans that we just moan about the venality of these officials yet we remain inactive in enforcing accountability. Centuries ago Plato said: the price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. The public pays a lot of attention to social ills such as crime, violence, corruption and their negative effects on society, yet a greater social ill is apathy. It is the attitude that will destroy us and summarised no better than by Bodie Thoene: "apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand."
This article first appeared in Die Burger.
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