|
South Africa is suffering with massive power
cuts due to demand being much more than supply. When the current
African National Congress Party (ANC) came to power in 1994 (they were a
former Marxist trained terrorist group) they were given the plans for the
continued expansion of the electricity supplies in South Africa by the
previous government who had managed the supply very well, even through the
years of sanctions against South Africa. There were funds available to
build new power stations but what did the ANC do? They wasted cash on
appointing party officials to high level jobs they were not trained for,
they got rid of the trained professional and skilled white managers and
engineers placing black people in their jobs virtually overnight, they
supplied electricity to squatter camps and other black settlements and
charged nothing for the electricity used, or could not collect because they
people were not working.
Then they bought millions of dollars worth of
weapons they had no need for, spent US$ 43 million on a luxury Boeing jet
for the president's personal use (Why? Even the PM of the UK does not have a
personal jet.) And cash has been wasted to the extent that in
some cases, the banks have refused overdraft facilities as government
departments have been so overdrawn.
The following is a letter from a high level
consulting engineer working for Eskom, the supply para-statal responsible
for all electricity supplies in SA. It makes very interesting reading.
South Africa: Vindication for THE (White) Racists
(Referring to those whites who accurately
forecast what would happen after the ANC or any African blacks took over
South Africa.)
Date Posted:
Thursday 24-Jan-2008 From
www.africancrisis.co.za
PRAAG, the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group has interesting debates. This is one
of them.
email praag@yahoogroups.com
Sunday, January 20, 2008 1:22 AM
Note: ESKOM = Electricity Supply Commission (in English).
€1 = R10, 50 (Jan 2008),
or €1 = R14, 18,
US$1 = 7, 12.
Eskom always had electricity projections and spare capacity and plans for
expansion before 1994. The ANC put a moratorium on expansion and used the
funds for other things that would win them votes. They increased demand by
electrification to areas that would never pay for it, and caused the writing
off of massive arrears. While demand caught up with maximum capacity, they
fiddled while Rome plunged into darkness.
In addition they ‘transformed’ the upper echelons of ESKOM and filled high
level posts with Politically Correct people with no qualifications or
competence for seats they only fill. This caused a mass exodus of good
staff.
If this is not enough our leader decides that his former sponsor and in-laws
who are in power in Zimbabwe also need electricity since they were cut off
by Mozambique for non-payment. So Mugabe has power to spread his terror,
courtesy of SA.
While he gives away our power, the suburb where Mbeki has his home has not
experienced ‘load sharing’.
Load shedding = political manipulation at the highest level.
We will soon become a banana republic that can’t even grow bananas since
there is no power to run the pumps to water the bananas. Progress for South
Africa is the transition from electricity to candles.
When will the masses that put this incompetent crowd into office toyi toyi
to chuck them out again?
The loss of money to our economy is staggering. If we are 50 consulting
engineers in 1 building earning an average of R500/hour, the loss is R25 000
per hour. For a 1 hr outage we are losing R100 000 (€9
525). This happens regularly
and to how many companies?
The work also falls behinds so the client’s construction is behind, costing
them money there as well. I would hate to think of the impact to the nation
as a whole.
This while the CEO at ESKOM sits on his rear end in a seat
he is not
qualified to fill, and earns
R35 000 per day (€3
335).
Load shedding means this government has shed its responsibility to the
nation, if they ever had any sense of responsibility. They take no
accountability for this mess they have created. Electricity demand
projections to them mean far less than projections of increases in their
personal salaries.
Electricity cannot be stored. The grid and infrastructure must be able to
provide peak demands by bringing more generation capacity on line when
needed. Due to the long lead times in bringing new plants on line, and the
necessity of ensuring adequate coal and water supplies for increasing
capacity, planning must be for 20 - 30 years into the future. This is beyond
this government’s ability.
There was a meeting this week at the ESKOM conference centre with consulting
engineers about what can be done. In this meeting the power went off.
Sirens started to howl, etc. ESKOM is not immune to the impact of
this Government’s incompetence.
The only area that is immune to power cuts is the area in which
President Thabo Mbeki has his
residence in Arcadia. We should all move to Arcadia area.
The power cuts are due to the ANC putting a moratorium on expansion when
they took power while increasing drastically government staffing levels and
their own salaries. If our Black countrymen choose to now toyi toyi (dance)
against the government, for the first time I will support them. They are
running our country into the ground by corruption and incompetence. They
remain silent. But we know they prevented expansion as planned by the
previous regime, on which they blame everything.
We should replace load shedding with people shedding. It is convention that
people in management and leadership positions take responsibility for the
consequences of their decisions. Historically this has meant resignation,
suicide, firing squad, imprisonment, firing, etc.
Why don’t the leaders responsible for this crisis do the honourable thing?
The Affirmative Action incompetents that masquerade as ESKOM’s management,
the people responsible for lack of maintenance on the massive turbo
generators (It was not done on at least 3 generators), the ANC officials
that mandated a moratorium on the expansion of capacity, and the giving away
of our power to Zimbabwe, we should load shed ourselves of these parasites
that our destroying SA. The only planning they are capable of is how to
enrich themselves by corruption and Black Equality Empowerment deals. For all its faults the
previous regime always planned water and power well into the future.
Thank you ESKOM for helping us to rejoin Africa and let the world see why it
is the continent of darkness. Next time send your management to Zimbabwe
rather than our power. Or did they like the Zimbabwe ruins so much they
decided to reproduce it here on mass? Guess your CEO earned his bonus: The
ANC never had to go without power.
Besides impact on all our businesses, time lost in chaotic traffic, waste of
expensive fuel, loss of food products, increased transport costs which will
ripple through the economy, appliance losses due to surges etc. lets look at
larger impacts:
Water will be cut off as pumps running 24 hrs to storage reservoirs will no
longer be able to meet demand. This is already happening in Harare. Many
reservoirs no longer have 48 hrs storage due to expansion, making the
problem worse and I am sure some reservoirs are down to a few hours storage,
hence a few ‘load shares’ will mean no water. We are eating into reserves
for firefighting water.
Water treatment depends on electricity. Water supply from treatment works is
also reduced, reducing supply.
Sewage cannot be treated. Storage facilities are limited so raw sewage will
be dumped into rivers which flow into our dams, which is disastrous due to
impacts on treatment works and the environment
Water cannot be pumped for irrigation, affecting agriculture
Fuel demand will skyrocket due to more and more reliance on generators.
Shortages of fuel. Already diesel is getting hard to find.
As businesses shut down due to massive losses, less VAT is paid, and all the
people put out of work thus paying less in taxes?
No power means people don’t pay ESKOM, hence they have no funds for
expansion.
We risk going into economic freefall. This c-ANC-er government is destroying
the nation built and paid for by our tax money that seems to more and more
find its way into ANC pockets.
Consulting Engineer in the Water Sector on January 18th, 2008 at 4:13 pm.
_______________________________________________________________________________
THE CURRENT POWER PROBLEMS - THE
FACTS
S.Africa: The Many Lies about
Electricity Generation (From African Crisis web-site)
Date Posted: Wednesday 30-Jan-2008
There are many lies told about
electricity generation during this crisis so far.
The first was the wet coal issue. I've mentioned before that someone who
worked for Eskom pointed out that coal burns better when it is wet. In fact,
you'll see that on steam locomotives they take a hose pipe and water the
coal before they use it.
Then there were statements that low grade coal is also part of the problem.
On TV last night there was a white man who was interviewed who mentioned
that the power stations are designed for low grade coal and that if high
grade coal is used it will damage them. They will actually have to be
changed before they can use high grade coal.
I saw in the Business Report newspaper that they received internal Eskom
documents. Apparently, there are breakdowns daily in Eskom.
A friend of mine was pointing out to me that its not only a case of power
generation that is the problem but also power distribution. He said there
are many instances where electrical substations break down. So the power is
there, but it can't reach you.
I saw this morning that newspaper headlines were saying that Eskom is now
saying THE WORST IS YET TO COME! Well, finally... some straight talk.
ESKOM is also saying that power rationing, which initially they said would
occur in 3-months time is now coming in in March.
The power rationing bothers me and I was wondering what thoughts any of the
readers have on the matter. My concern is ESKOM using this as an excuse to
start fining us. And what can we do? If we dispute it, then they'll use it
as an excuse to cut off our power supply.
Of course one has to ask how they will calculate our monthly usage and
implement the fines. What happens when you have valid reasons for NOT
cutting your monthly power consumption by 10%?
For myself, I actually will go and do some experiments with my own power
usage to determine how much power I actually draw for my stove, geyser, etc.
I doubt there will be many others who will even bother. But I'll do it for
myself as a useful exercise. Why? Because it appears to me that we will end
up being hit with much higher monthly power costs in the time to come and
using power efficiently may end up saving you a lot of money in the future.
Apparently Eskom could have had much power which was generated by big
business which could have supplied them. One such company was, I believe,
Hullets. But Eskom did not want to buy this surplus power generated by
business ventures, and so those ventures then died out.
The fact that Eskom turned down these business proposals is interesting. I
have always felt that the ANC, being largely socialists will not have any
interest in running this country in a capitalist way. This rejection of
initiatives by big business is proof to me that the ANC's "capitalism" under
Mbeki was luke warm at best. In many ways Mbeki has sabotaged what
capitalism could have done for this country.
Capitalism could have helped prevent the power problems we have now.
But knowing the ANC, I suspect that these MASSIVE amounts of money which
will be redirected to Eskom will also provide an opportunity for new
mega-levels of corruption, theft and wastage. Do not expect these many
billions of additional monies to solve the problems.
Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of:
Government by Deception
And a Comment on the current situation from a
engineer.
Date Posted: Wednesday
30-Jan-2008
My father was a senior manager at Eskom on the Generation side. He retired
around 1995/96 and consulted for the company that built the Samancor power
station which was commissioned within 2 years.
He was approached by Eskom midway through last year to do consulting work
regarding the re-commissioning of mothballed power stations that included
Grootvlei and I think Camden. The hourly rate he requested is less than what
I pay for servicing my car or having an electrician do work at my house and
Eskom had the temerity to tell him that his requested rate was high. Anyway
Eskom agreed to the rates. BUT, his 'paperwork' has not been processed yet -
7 months later in the middle of a national crisis!
The contradictory statements spewing from CEO Jacob Moraga and Wilson from
Erkuheleni this week indicates to me that they do not have a clue about
Generation or distribution of power, contingency plans or any plan for that
matter.
The facts are that Eskom DOES indeed have the
capacity to generate enough power for SA’s needs but due to lack of
maintenance enough generation and distribution cannot take place.
Affirmative Action (AA) policies have chased away skilled labour but neither
Eskom nor the Government (ANC) can or will admit to this. Skilled labour was
given early retirement’ options in the mid 90’s only to be replaced by
accountants who knew nothing about the generation of electricity.
But criticism without suggestions does no good and therefore I have
suggestions to be made.
1. Advertise power saving methods in all media as they do on TV when they
give power usage alerts.
2. Timer switches must be installed on all devices that only need to operate
for short periods so that they are used off peak.
3. Daylight saving for the East and West parts of the country to reduce
peaks.
4. Mines (excluding Continuous Operations mines) to change their shift hours
back or forward. This can apply to othe industry that uses a lot of power -
Smelters, motor industry etc
5. Give load shedding warning and advise the affected people to shut off all
electrical devices before hand otherwise these devices switch back on when
there is nobody using them and there is no-one there to switch them off.
This happens at our office when load shedding occurs after 3.00 p.m. and the
staff go home. The airconditioning switches back on later and the timers are
out.
6. Replace the biggest culprit - Alec Erwin - with somebody competent.
7. Scrap Affirmative Action (the forced employment of black people even when
they are not competent) where competency is required.
But my main suggestion is for the CEO to stop blaming the consumer. We were
not negligent in our planning.
But Thabo (Mbeki), the chickens are coming home to roost. You have Selebi,
Manto, the honourary white Erwin (Luke Watson in politics), Pumzile & Maroga
whom you protect but then you fire the competents like Pikoli and Routledge.
Zuma is your big threat in the ANC and Patricia de Lille in the arms
scandal. Now Pat wants a vote of no confidence in February 2008 which you
are likely to lose - politically to Zuma's cronies and on results of your
own making. Is that why you are engaging with the enemy (now friendly) with
Helen and her Democratic Alliance Party?
You had not thought of the consequences and have undone all the good you did
for our country and will be remembered and ridiculed for your failures
instead being respected for your achievements and statesmanship.
Phil West
Filemon
P.E.
RSA
Date Posted: Wednesday 30-Jan-2008
the Carte Blanche programme was pretty clear about these lies, such as the
'wet coal' lie, showing how the Black-Economic-Empowerment 'private
contractors" had been paid so little for their efforts to transport the coal
to the power stations, that there's now not enough coal to keep the fires
stoking hot enough - so there's not enough electricity being generated.
It's not really rocket science but it's rather ingenious of this ANC-spindoctor
to come up with that 'wet coal' thingee. Totally hilarious actually. Anybody
who has ever had a coal stove know that wet coal burns just fine, thank you.
Adriana
Netherlands
_________________________________________________________________________________
S.Africa: The Great Power Panic of 2008, worse
than 1994 - Investors fleeing...
Date Posted: Sunday 03-Feb-2008
I'm sure many South Africans
remember the panic of 1994 when there was talk of a Race war when the ANC
came to power.
Then there were lots of people who bought extra food and who prepared for
power outages, etc. I was one of them. But then again, I'm always in that
state of mind. I always like to keep extra stocks of food and needed items.
You never know when shortages can hit, like last year when we were without
petrol for a WEEK - something unknown in South Africa.
But in 1994, there were some who said it was stupid to make preparations.
They were proven right.
But later when the facts came out, we had indeed been closer to war than
people knew. General Constand Viljoen averted it.
Anyhow... I used my little gas stove for odd power outages and it was
useful. At times I was the only person in my whole apartment complex who
could boil some water or cook something when we had the odd power failure.
However, the panic of 1994 was nothing like the panic of 2008.
In 2007 we were shown that we could be without PETROL. I hope that people
have learned something for that. For almost a week there was no fuel in
Johannesburg and people were running around looking for petrol stations that
still had fuel.
But with the power outages of January 2008 and the news of the shocking
state of our national power grid (which some of us have been watching
decline for years now), panic has really hit people in a way I've never seen
in the 25+ years that I've lived here.
Most generators have been sold out. People are buying small and large
generators like crazy.
Gas? There's no gas. Well, you can get gas refilled, but you must first find
a place to buy a proper gas bottle. I saw MICA hardware in Cresta yesterday
still had some gas bottles and even 2 generators, but I'm sure they will be
sold out on short order.
A friend of mine told me that one Chinese importer he knows sold 18,000
generators in the last few months! That is unprecedented for South Africa.
I'm seeing lanterns appearing on shop shelves and people buying rechargable
lanterns.
Every shop owner I talk to says: "This will be our
new way of life from now on. Don't expect any of these power problems to be
solved in the next few years. This new trend could be the way things are for
the rest of our lives". NOBODY expects the problem to be fixed even though
our government has estimated the problem will be solved in 5-8 years."
Now our government, who are themselves the real cause for the power
problems, are about to PUNISH US for THEM not doing
their job!!
Among the things they've discussed:-
o Banning all incandescent light bulbs
o Introducing power rationing
o Forcing you to reduce your electricity usage by 10% or be fined
o They will put up electricity prices by 14.5% - but even the Governor of
the Reserve Bank says the reality may be higher. (Could our electricity
costs go up by 20%?) We'll have to see.
o Send inspectors to your home to check how you use electricity!
o The Mines have been shut down for days, and tens of thousands, maybe even
hundreds of thousands of people may lose their jobs because of these forced
closures.
But on the investment front it is just as bleak.
Adriana posted a news article from Rapport (SA National) newspaper wherein
it is stated that R12.5 billion worth of investment has fled South Africa in
the last year. In December R5.8 billion worth of bonds were sold by foreign
investors.
I have an additional story to tell that I read in a financial report some
days ago. The government wanted to issue new bonds while redeeming old
bonds. The idea was to roll the debt forward to 2030.
When the government issued the new bonds THERE WERE
NO BUYERS AT ALL!
Nobody wanted to buy the new government bonds!
But some companies warned of this. We've been talking about investors
fleeing this country. In December communist Jacob Zuma was elected as the
President of the ANC, and he'll probably be the future President of S.Africa.
I suspect that Zuma's election and Zuma's rise is the reason for last years
mass sell-off of investments here.
But wait... recently, in 2008, R8 billion fled from the Johannesburg
Stock Exchange when the Eskom power problems hit this country.
The Rand has also resumed its downward fall which had halted back in 2000.
For the last 8 years we've experienced a reversal in the Rand's fall. In
2000 the Rand hit R13 to the US Dollar. This year, Rand Merchant Bank
Predicted a fall down to as far as R9 to a US Dollar - and that was BEFORE
the Eskom problems started.
When will we see R20 or R30 to the US Dollar? In our lifetimes I'm sure.
Maybe we'll see even worse.
Inflation is also finally out of control. It is reaching 9%... and I can't
see it being curbed in any way.
Finally, after 14 years, foreigners are realising that South Africa is
unsalvageable... and they're just fleeing. They know by now that any
statements by this Government are completely worthless.
I think the Transvaal Agricultural Union summarised it the best when they
stated that these Eskom power problems will be the African National
Congresses "Waterloo". Whatever minor optimism might have been entertained
by anyone local or foreign has now just flown out the window.
South Africa will be heading firmly down the path of Zimbabwe.
Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of:
Government by Deception
______________________________________________________________________________
SA: Electricity Chaos: Mines under
pressure amid energy crisis - thousands to lose jobs
Date Posted: Tuesday 26-Feb-2008
[This is sad. Within a matter
of weeks, thousands may lose their jobs. I know what its like to be without
work. Its dreadful. I sympathise with these people. Rather have a low-paying
job than no job at all. But this is the ANC's way. Jan]
By James Macharia
The power crisis in South Africa has forced miners to partially close
mines, curbed output and put jobs at risk, triggering threats of street
protests by unions in the world's top precious metals producer.
South Africa's key mining industry, a big foreign exchange earner and job
creator, ground to a halt for five days last month as an electricity
shortage became a national emergency.
Since then, miners have operated with 90% of the electricity they would
normally need, hurting production and helping send metal prices to record
highs.
Gold Fields, the world's fourth-largest gold miner, plans to scale back
production at lower grade mines and possibly cut 6 900 jobs, or 13
percent, of its 53 000-strong workforce.
"The inability of Eskom (the electricity supply company) to supply the mines
their full power requirements has caused a significant crisis in the South
African mining industry," said Terence Goodlace, the company's head of South
African operations.
"It is paradoxical that we have to consider downscaling in the current
record-high gold price environment," he said.
Gold rose on Monday as high as $951.90, just below a recent historic high on
investor buying, before paring gains.
Gold Fields said output at its South African mines would fall by up to 25
percent in the quarter to end-March, and by up to 20 percent in the fourth
quarter onwards.
Unions reacted angrily to the job-cut
threats.
"The NUM will take to the streets if companies carry out their retrenchments
threats. It is not our members who brought about the electricity crisis,"
said Lesiba Seshoka, spokesperson for the National Union of Mineworkers.
Source URL:
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20080225225234222C829520
Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of:
Government by Deception
    
Readers' Comments
Date Posted: Tuesday 26-Feb-2008
To the members of the
mining unions.
Oh yes it was your members that caused the crisis, you
bloody idiot! Your union supports the ANC, does it not? Did your union not
encourage your members to vote for them?
Typical - never ever ever take responsibility for your mistakes. Voting for
the ANC was the BIGGEST MISTAKE your members ever made, and now they are
paying for that.
Voting is power, and with power comes responsibility - if there was any
fairness or proportionality, you'll now have to grin and bear it - you voted
the bastards into power, you can't "take to the streets" now because "the
electricity problems is not our fault".
IT -IS- YOUR BLOODY FAULT! You
voted them in. &*^(#@ idiots!
Stefan Viljoen
Potchefstroom
South Africa
|
|