LETTER: Race quotas caused Eskom meltdown

What short memories we have. The meltdown at Eskom is not due to André de Ruyter never having run a power station. It is not due to metastasised cartels, poisonous as they may be (“De Ruyter could have run Eskom better, says Kieswetter”, February 28).

No, our long day’s journey into night is due to the easing out of competent power station managers. This started a quarter century ago in pursuit of the obsessive empowerment targets of the ANC.

Lack of experience and competence drives corruption. We humans are ambitious. If we cannot derive satisfaction from a job well done (lacking the wherewithal) we will derive pleasure  — and short-term gain — from destruction.

It’s merely human nature, the inevitable result of the quota phobia of the governing party. The answer? Drop race quotas. Adopt competence as our criterion.

Willem Cronje
Cape Town

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