Failing Eskom’s reminder to South Africans on eve of critical election
27 October 2021
Eskom’s increasingly feeble performance over the past three years, culminating in a week of frequent blackouts in the run-up to critical local government elections on Monday, is a bugle call to voters to get out and vote.
Since the introduction of so-called “loadshedding” 13 years ago, South Africans have endured a seemingly endless soap opera of plans, promises, villains, saviours – and blame. First it was arson, followed in close order by poor maintenance, then state capture, then back to maintenance…
In the hands of the ANC-led government and its cadres, Eskom’s dysfunctionality has been politicised, factionalised and weaponised.
The only constant has been the reintroduction of crippling blackouts at regular intervals. Crippling to productivity, crippling to the economy, and crippling to the nation’s sense of wellbeing and sustainability.