ANTHONY BUTLER: For the most tragic victims of the great Eskom robbery, look to ordinary households
Affordability, or rather unaffordability, is a real constraint on the uses to which electricity can be put by the poor
The Eskom crisis is sometimes presented as a series of mild and victimless misdemeanours. True, SA’s public finances have been imperilled and the country’s energy security has been threatened, but surely a revamped board will set the finances straight? And the nuclear sideshow has surely drawn to a close? Most of Eskom’s looting beneficiaries remain remarkably sanguine about the results of their actions. Many of the parastatal’s problems were highlighted two decades ago, when the then department of minerals and energy launched its vaunted energy white paper. Governments around the world were moving away from vertically integrated and monopolistic power monoliths. The recommended pattern of reform was to separate power generation, the transmission grid and distribution systems. Independent power producers (IPPs) would bring competition and cutting-edge technologies to generation. An independent grid would be overseen by a powerful regulator. Big energy users and regional electricity ...
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