The sorry state of the Mafube local municipality in the Free State – it includes the towns of Frankfort, Villiers, Tweeling and Cornelia – could be an ominous portent of the future of South Africa, especially as it relates to the move to alternative power sources.
Eskom has just won a high court case which has shut down a private initiative helping the town lessen the burden of load shedding through supplementary power provided by four solar farms.
The whole project was being run by a private company and was a hopeful blueprint for future state-private cooperation on power generation.
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The problem, from Eskom’s perspective, is that allowing such arrangements will reduce its ability to control the electricity grid.
This need to retain control smacks of the old days of apartheid “baasskap” but at the same time is also evidence of the ANC’s infatuation with a centrally-controlled state, along socialist lines.
In countries like Australia, the adoption of solar power has been encouraged by government schemes which allow owners of renewable energy sources – including ordinary home owners – to sell electricity back to the grid.
This is what Cape Town is in the process of doing, although the costs of equipment needed to facilitate the metering and subsequent billing is said to be prohibitive at the moment.
Industrialised countries of the North have pledged $8.5 billion in soft financing and grants for renewable energy projects to help wean South Africa off its reliance on coal for power.
But that could come to nothing if there are not mechanisms put in place to level the playing field between renewables and Eskom.
By acting like a protectionist thug, Eskom is sending the message that it will fight tooth and nail to retain what is left of its monopoly. And that’s bad news for everyone
