CAROL PATON: Why what happened last week at Eskom was not sabotage
Eskom has simply neglected maintenance of plants and there is no evidence to back up the conspiracy theories
The conspiracy theories around those responsible for Eskom’s stage three and four load-shedding last week were ridiculous. The ANC blamed sabotage by workers; workers blamed management and the government, which they said were plotting to carve up the business between themselves for private profit; and the Jacob Zuma fightback mob blamed Cyril Ramaphosa, who they said was plotting with his brothers-in-law, Patrice Motsepe and Jeff Radebe, to get bigger stakes in independent power producers. Everyone thought someone else was to blame. Not one had a shred of evidence to back up their claims. But consider this. Eskom’s energy availability factor – the amount of energy its power stations are able to feed the grid at any one time – has been dropping like a stone since 2017, when it was at 79%. By October 2018 it had dropped to 71%. By the second week of February just before load-shedding began, only 64% of Eskom’s plants were delivering power. This is because Eskom has severely neglected ...
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