Deputy president David Mabuza’s pronouncement on the Eskom board’s dereliction in preventing load-shedding is paradoxical, highlighting the sheer ineptitude of this Zuma-lite administration.

The destruction of the once-celebrated utility was driven by two policies, both masterminded by the ANC: radical transformation, in which professional competence and common sense were set aside to appoint managers with neither the qualifications nor the experience to govern complex organisations; and a belief that state-owned enterprises could be used as unlimited ATMs, to enrich the party leadership and their surrogates...