LETTER: SA’s familiar old hubris shows in power station project
We would have been better advised to build old-style tried-and-tested ‘six-packs’ from the 1980s
21 October 2022 - 12:45
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Kusile power station outside Emalahleni. Picture: THULANI MBELE
The old adage applicable to the greedy, “Your eyes are too big for your stomach,” comes to mind when we read that the entire Kusile power station is offline. Engineers believed early on that Medupi and Kusile were too ambitious. They were huge and advanced power stations at the cutting edge of technology, utterly at odds with our capacity in SA. We would have been better advised to build old-style tried-and-tested "six-packs" from the 1980s.
Does this hubris sound familiar? Think outcomes-based education, which ended up a farce — all we achieved was the worlds worst education levels in reading and maths. Could this blind pursuit of impossible dreams recur? Oh yes, it’s already happening. Witness our irrational obsession with being the world’s first demographically perfect society, where the composition of every aspect of human enterprise reflects the demography of the population.
This, despite our current wildly disparate levels of experience and qualification — and lack of a common view regarding the ranking of service to the people above self-service. Welcome to our next disaster.
Willem Cronje, Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
LETTER: SA’s familiar old hubris shows in power station project
We would have been better advised to build old-style tried-and-tested ‘six-packs’ from the 1980s
The old adage applicable to the greedy, “Your eyes are too big for your stomach,” comes to mind when we read that the entire Kusile power station is offline. Engineers believed early on that Medupi and Kusile were too ambitious. They were huge and advanced power stations at the cutting edge of technology, utterly at odds with our capacity in SA. We would have been better advised to build old-style tried-and-tested "six-packs" from the 1980s.
Does this hubris sound familiar? Think outcomes-based education, which ended up a farce — all we achieved was the worlds worst education levels in reading and maths. Could this blind pursuit of impossible dreams recur? Oh yes, it’s already happening. Witness our irrational obsession with being the world’s first demographically perfect society, where the composition of every aspect of human enterprise reflects the demography of the population.
This, despite our current wildly disparate levels of experience and qualification — and lack of a common view regarding the ranking of service to the people above self-service. Welcome to our next disaster.
Willem Cronje, Cape Town
JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.
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