BUSINESS Report editor Ellis Mnyandu’s heartfelt plea (February 16) for responsible political leadership, following the February 12 chaos in Parliament, is undoubtedly shared by many. But a cursory study of our political landscape suggests that it lacks the panacea Mnyandu seeks.
The most salient feature of South Africa after 20 years of ANC rule is that we have a hopelessly bloated government that is unable and unwilling to control itself, and which is impoverishing the country through plunder and incompetence.
Expecting a political Moses to arise from the gravy train, which the ANC operates, is naive. However, our vexed situation runs deeper than the power-drunk ranks of the ANC. The late Frederick Van Zyl Slabbert in his book The Last White Parliament(1987, page 73) warned that “unrestrained majoritarianism” would produce “severely undemocratic” outcomes. Have we not arrived at that milestone?
Slabbert’s dark thought needs to be premised on the observation David Horowitz makes ( A Democratic South Africa?1991, page 242). Democracy, he notes, is rare in ethnically and racially divided societies where majorities and minorities are rigidly predetermined.
Is that not also applicable in our case?
Added to that is the indelible historical thread which runs through African societies, namely, reverence for the “strong man” and the tendency for strength to prevail over law. (Ilana Mercer, Into the Cannibal’s Pot, 2011, page 174).
Beneath the blandishments that colour references to the new South Africa lie severe ethnic, ideological and historical faultlines. They were, it would appear, overlooked if not sidelined in the 1993/94 rush to usher in the new South Africa. Had a federal constitutional structure been embraced, as the likes of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi urged, South Africa’s political landscape would not be so bleak.
Dr Duncan Du Bois
Brighton Beach
durban
Does one hand know what the other does?
Diesel or Gas? The Eskom Quandary.
Early this month, amid the heaviest load shedding to date, Eskom’s spokesman provided us with another glimpse of their dodgy management system: “We have lost capacity in more than five units. At this stage we can’t say how many. We are working on that.” A little like saying that they had lost one of their power stations while devoting all their resources into tracking it down.
That scarcely credible admission was followed by the president’s Sona announcement that Eskom had been directed to fuel the Ankerlig and Gourikwa gas turbines with gas, thereby proving that there are few limits to ignorance.
The origins of this insanity probably lie with the birth of the infamous Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), a vital need which resulted in a Department of Energy (DoE) spreadsheet exercise employing little energy and even less expertise. Some 10 years ago Eskom correctly recognised that the country needed alternative energy sources, such as natural gas, and actually appointed a manager of gas, Rodney Beckman. Evidently, he planned for gas-fuelled gas turbine power stations at points where natural gas could be imported as liquid natural gas (LNG), requiring marine terminals with storage and regasification. This was a sound concept but requiring several years’ lead time.
The Energy Department apparently blocked LNG importation as it did not comply with the IRP (still to be launched), but the Eskom plans already relied on having that peaking power available and so they modified their plans. Engineering logic departed and the gas turbines were left as inefficient, simple-cycle machines, without any thought given to the logistics of fuel supply.
Those logistics became massive when the number of turbogenerator sets was increased, with 9 at Ankerlig and 5 at Gourikwa (total cost of some R15 billion), but that problem could be left with PetroSA, giving them a practical reason for their existence. Ankerlig consumes fuel oil at the rate of some 300 tons/hour: the two stations together, operating for 2 hours a day, have much the same daily diesel consumption as 200 000 average diesel cars.
PetroSA could fuel Gourikwa directly from their Mossel Bay refinery, even if Gourikwa potentially consumed its entire diesel output and more. As for Ankerlig, no one seriously considered installing a pipeline from bulk oil storage in Cape Town, preferring to supply fuel by a continuous wagon train of road tankers. Simultaneously, Forest Oil discovered the Ibhubesi gas field off Saldanha, now in the hands of African International Energy and PetroSA. Actual gas production is dependent on raising development capital and licensing by the Energy Department, neither of which has been realised.
Yes, Mr Zuma, let’s replace diesel with natural gas, but then kick the DoE into touch and permit immediate planning and construction of a gas supply for Cape Town.
Roger Toms
Hout Bay
Urgent need to deal with land reform
The 2015 State of the Nation address is probably rated as the most watched and at the same time, the most anarchic. The current situation of Parliament is ignominious and thus deserves serious intervention.
We saw President Jacob Zuma speaking of salient issues that should be dwelled on, such as the issue of land. Most members of the public regard land as one of the vital topics that need thorough discussion.
At the forefront was the announcement of an endorsed proposal adopted by the ANC, that a ceiling of 12 000 hectares would be placed on land ownership, thus curbing foreigners from owning land in South Africa.
The policy aim is to ensure that those that have more land than is required for their current operational needs are encouraged to pass that surplus land to the majority of people that own and use very little land. This could promote food security, social cohesion, increased land utilisation and productivity.
Land ceilings and land administration have been revisited with new perspectives not only in South Africa, but in other countries such as India, Scotland and Zimbabwe, so policies are therefore a clear indication of protecting the countries’ valuable assets.
I personally think that this proposal will assure that most of South African land does not end up in foreign hands, as we currently have a problem of identifying the exact amount of land owned by foreigners. South Africans should give themselves time to carefully study the ceiling of curbing foreigners of owning productive land as it could be of great significance. Government urgently needs to deal with the current state of land reform.
Nthabiseng Matabane
Pretoria
Sell Megawatt Park land for funds
Sir, I have a suggestion for Eskom: instead of begging for more funds (“Eskom Seeking Loan for Diesel” – Business Report, February 18) they should give serious consideration to selling off most of the landscaped land surrounding Megawatt Park in Sunninghill, Johannesburg. Presently surrounded by a double security fence, this parkland must encompass several hundred acres of what could become prime residential property.
JC Mould
Melrose Estate
Johannesburg