Eskom’s four-pronged plug
20 April 2023
President Ramaphosa’s appointment of Dr Kgosientsho ‘Sputla’ Ramokgopa as Minister of Electricity is one of three things: inspired, desperate or pragmatic, but it can’t be all three. If he fixes Eskom and delivers sustainable electricity to the country, it will be regarded as inspired and the defining moment of the Ramaphosa presidency. National interest aside, success in the short to medium term will boost the ANC’s support in the 2024 general election and buttress the second term of a President suffering from a growing crisis of credibility.
Failure, however, will have a compounding effect on the ailing economy, harden voter disaffection with the ANC and possibly turn off the lights on the Ramaphosa presidency. No pressure then.
Yet, Ramokgopa’s appointment as Minister within the Presidency is itself an acknowledgment of failure, not only of Eskom and its business model, but also its relationship with its state shareholder. It also signals far deeper pathologies operating within government and individual power plays between Ministers. Absent the wisdom of Solomon, the creation of the new Ministry may be viewed as Ramaphosa’s solution to a set of intractable problems.
The fundamental challenge that is beyond the Ramaphosa presidency is to rethink the role (if any) of state-opened enterprises in contemporary South Africa. The litany of SoE failure conveys a trail of collapse, waste and abuse, all funded by the South African taxpayer. Worse still, the collapse of SoEs has resulted in the failure of services to the neediest in society.