A wag on social media commented this week that, by blaming the private sector for our continuing load shedding crisis, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe was at least allowing the “it’s the fault of apartheid” excuse a little breather.
That comment pinpointed the fact that our ANC government casts far and wide to blame anyone but themselves for the parlous state of not only Eskom, but of the entire country.
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According to Mantashe, the private sector did not have the “appetite” to become involved in the new build programme for power stations which would have been necessary to accommodate the fact that the country’s electricity surplus would have ended in 2007.
However, experts with knowledge of what happened in the late 1990s said private sector involvement was dependent on the state coming up with a plan for power generation, because electricity provision had accelerated faster than expected.
No such detailed plan was forthcoming in time, as the ANC still struggled with its socialist conscience that dictated that private enterprise was, somehow, sinful. Former president Thabo Mbeki was responsible for much of the dithering, but the reality is that the ruling party sat on its thumbs and acted too late.
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And when it did act, it was clearly more interested in lining its party coffers and those of well-connected comrades than it was in the provision of power. Just as worrying about Mantashe’s creative view of history – which is common among his party – is his bullying attitude.
In seeking to blame others, he also tries to appear to be the one left with the only reasonable solutions. In doing so, he is pushing options like “powerships” and plays down, or even attacks, the entire renewable energy sector.
Who will he blame next?
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