MAIN LEADER
EDITORIAL: Still in the dark
There’s nothing like a short, sharp dose of load-shedding to remind us that Eskom is still bumbling along much like always and real improvement is frustratingly distant
A recent opinion piece gave vivid life to George W Bush’s concept of “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. In it, the idea was floated that the man running the generation operation at Eskom, Bheki Nxumalo, ought to be recognised as an “unsung hero of 2024”.
Those of us plunged into darkness last weekend will not need reminding that grown-up analysis of South Africa’s energy security is critical to our understanding of the performance of investments and businesses. Eskom’s fundamentals are abysmal and are not improving. The turnaround in electricity supply is a function of the addition of 6GW of rooftop solar (customers abandoning Eskom), the cessation of sabotage at the utility’s coal-fired plants and the belated return of supply from units that ought never to have broken down in the first place...
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