SIKONATHI MANTSHANTSHA: Eskom’s empty coffers the last nail in the coffin
Are the many going to mercilessly be made to pay for the sins of the few? Again?
People who learn nothing from history are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past. We have now come full circle, back to that point at which we found ourselves not so long ago. The coffers of Eskom, the most strategically important company in SA, have been emptied in a rather dramatic fashion. The many are going to mercilessly be made to pay for the sins of the few. Again. It was only in 2015, a mere 26 months ago, that Eskom ran out of cash to pay suppliers and staff wages. At that point, the money had melted away; walked out of the organisation. Incompetence, arrogance and corruption made for an explosive cocktail that blew away the last vestiges of good governance. At the time, finance minister Nhlanhla Nene sold government’s 12% stake in Vodacom to release R23bn to tide Eskom over. He wrote off another R60bn owed to the state. Electricity production had plummeted and economic activity had ground to a halt. Power rationing had become almost permanent, worsened by former public e...
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