PETER ATTARD MONTALTO: Robustness of private sector lures policymakers into complacency over Eskom
Energy experts have publicly laid bare the lack of wider energy policy coherence yet no action has been taken
The load-shedding shock has apparently not been big enough to cause any action. The economy hasn’t fallen off a cliff in the first quarter and we have seen inherent robustness of the private sector. There appears to have been limited impact on party polling. So, no problem? The problem is this robustness breeds complacency (paralleling complacency on the unemployment and inequality crises) among policymakers. Yet it is worse than that. Energy experts have fully laid out in public in the past month the lack of wider energy policy coherence yet no action has been taken. Analysts, investors and many parts of the media mistakenly think we are dealing with a simple government policy-formation, deployment and implementation machine. Instead of productive panic, complacency is mixed with internal political factional battles, a blurring of party and state, rent-extraction elements clinging on, ideological lead weights, egos and personality clashes, micro-fiddling, a deep fatigue and a st...
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