eskom history
South Africa’s dark history of dodgy coal contracts
Corruption, mismanagement, industrial sabotage and technical incompetence at Eskom are nothing new. Neither is load-shedding. They date back to at least the 1950s, at National Party-controlled power utility Escom
16 March 2023 - 05:00
Say the word “Eskom”, and most people’s blood will boil. Corruption, mismanagement, industrial sabotage and technical incompetence are, after all, synonymous with the national power utility that was, from 1923, known as the Electricity Supply Commission (Escom).
But any belief that the Escom of old was free of corruption — and always able to keep the coal fires burning — is far from true. In fact, its tenders in the 1950s were not just corrupt, they would also lead to one of the most catastrophic disasters in South African history...
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