PETER BRUCE: It’s power, Jim but not as we know it
The state has been largely able to win the argument of renewables. It’s over for coal
This is a noisy country but while your head is being turned this way and that by murder, mayhem and abuses of a dozen varieties, have you noticed how quiet the unions have gone on the government’s plan to split Eskom into three parts? Maybe something terrible is about to break loose but it’s so quiet. Too quiet? A few weeks ago all hell was about to break loose. President Cyril Ramaphosa, on the advice of a group of experts who worked through Christmas, announced in his state of the nation (Sona) address that he would split Eskom into generating, transmission and distribution arms as part of the plan to save it. The difference between transmission and distribution boils down to the voltage you’re carrying. The big stuff, straight out of those power stations still running, is transmission, the national grid. Distribution is the smaller stuff you use to boil your water. Finance minister Tito Mboweni confirmed the plan in his budget a few days later, and came up with a cleverly disguis...
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