WE refer to your article “SA is open for business – Zuma” (Business Report, January 22). In the article where President Jacob Zuma extends an invitation for domestic and foreign investment into the South African economy, he addresses the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting. Rather than inferring that apartheid has a contextual link to South Africa’s current challenges – including unemployment – this was a great opportunity for the president to have cited economic milestones as a direct result of black economic empowerment (BEE) – if only that were true.
To date government and business seem to have failed to view BEE for the boon – to all concerned – that it really is. Yes, BEE elicits apathy and perceivably lacks substance, largely because it masquerades in a punitive cloak that (wrongfully) presents it as a threat to business. And this will persist, unless we “cross the Rubicon”.
Empowerment, partnerships and innovative thinking are true catalysts of growth in 21st century business. Therefore, approaching BEE innovatively with a “greater good” stance, will underscore its opportunities for business.
The revised BEE codes are our chance to create hope in South Africa right now. They comprise 5 major groupings with three priority areas; and offer a total of 113 points.
Incentivising socio-economic development – combating poverty through empowerment; providing access to skills development and learnerships – upskilling employees and the unemployed through in-house talent management pipelines; job creation – producing suppliers and procurement from empowered suppliers; management control; and ownership.
Interestingly, skills development; enterprise and supplier development; and socio economic development comprise 65 of the total of 113 points. This entrenches the fact that a committed “What can I do to help?” attitude, armed with relevant research that enables a proactive approach, are non-negotiables when it comes to BEE.
Here’s to looking forward to South Africa standing tall at the next WEF, sharing sage words on how to cross the river and boldly head for that point of no return with BEE – or any other economic tool, for that matter.
Stephen Smith
By e-mail
How education and Eskom woes coincide
The New Year saw the country being reminded of two major failings, Eskom’s inability to operate a power station and the country’s inability to achieve meaningful matric results. Finally, we can join the dots! A country which has a failed education system is naturally incapable of producing the engineering talent required to operate and maintain complex technology. The modern ethic of pass-one, pass-all, with no aspirations to any sort of excellence, means that the education system can no longer reliably supply graduates with adequate literacy and numeracy – both assets essential to a capable engineer.
Contrary to popular opinion, engineers need to be literate if only to read and write specifications. One suspects that illiteracy was behind the Medupi boiler control system specification being impractical, probably defining control algorithms which required zero human intervention, there being few Eskom staff capable of meaningful intervention looking at the Duvha turbine over-speed test disaster. Numeracy is a logical necessity for engineers, if only to immediately check the veracity of their observations, but Eskom’s numeracy is limited to counting the number of unplanned generator outages in any month, or the remaining generation capacity at any given time.
With such a pathetic education system feeding an affirmative employment system it is little surprise that the modern Eskom engineer is seriously challenged to keep equipment running or to properly supervise the maintenance of that equipment. Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona recently told us that he was going to consult with the universities as to how to tackle the company’s massive maintenance backlog but, if those same universities cannot educate his engineers, how does he expect them to advise on something as esoteric as power station maintenance? And that backlog did not arise through keeping the 2010 lights on; the maintenance was carried out, but not using competent contractors and proper materials – it was , however, poorly specified and/or supervised. We all know that the maintenance is carried out because it’s now common cause that around 25 percent of the country’s generation capacity is under maintenance of one sort or another.
Of December 2014’s generator failures (six were reported, four in one day!), two of them were reported to be due to lightning strikes. No engineer worth a damn could accept that as happening in the area known, if for nothing else, as home to the world’s highest recorded incidence of lightning strikes. Every Mpumalanga power station has “cast iron” protection against lightning strikes, or rather had protection until someone stole the solid copper earthing spikes: there could be no other explanation, as distasteful as the truth is to Eskom. If they faced the truth, including the dismal failure of the country’s education system over the last 20-odd years, they might be able to make some progress in reliably generating power.
At least Eskom distances itself from the Presidency’s traditional belief that Eskom’s problems are inherited from the apartheid era.
Roger Toms
Hout Bay
Be grateful for what Eskom provides
We often get angry and complain about Eskom’s lack of delivery. Yet is it their fault? Are they deliberately short supplying us? Is it incompetence on their part?
Or are they simply over their heads, trying to provide sufficient power to this huge country with an ageing network and insufficient capacity available? Do we have the grace not to fume and complain about something we cannot change?
It is true that Eskom has increased electricity costs, yet it is still not enough to cover its requirements. In spite of these increases, South Africa’s electricity remains one of the cheapest in the world.
Fortunately, there is (electric) light at the end of the tunnel; when Kusile and Medupi power stations are complete, they will be among the biggest coal-fired power stations in the world.
Electricity is a new innovation in the history of the world. For most of humankind’s time on this planet we did not enjoy this wonder of modern life. Even the all powerful kings of old, who owned everything in their kingdoms, never had this luxury. Yet we take it for granted.
But there are still many around the world who do not have access to electric power. They would be grateful if they had what Eskom provides – cuts and all.
Finally, while blackouts do cause us problems, they are nevertheless good for the environment.
Martin Zagnoev
Sunningdale Ridge