Eskom CEO André de Ruyter’s recent revelation concerning design issues at two of its biggest coal-fired power stations, Medupi and Kusile, forcing a shutdown of power generation units, provides incontrovertible confirmation of the curse of past incompetence.

The chickens always come home to roost and they’re now ensconced in the boilers of Kusile and Medupi at Eskom while further strain is placed on the national grid. The reason is that the boilers were built at a length too short to deal with high temperatures, preventing the units from operating at full capacity. Reliability has been compromised over the years with scant regard to competence, maintenance, systems and fuel...

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