ESKOM’S incompetent management has shown its petticoats yet again and the legs on show are far from pretty. Its inability to reliably operate, or maintain, a modern power station is now common cause.
Its inability to manage a major project is legend, with the Medupi power station two to three years behind schedule, depending on whose schedule one refers to and when that schedule was published.
That delay is much the same as the entire construction period for projects much more complex and just as expensive, with or without the ridiculous cost escalation that Eskom has incurred.
Now we have the announcement of the target date for connection of the first Medupi generating unit to the grid, none other than December 24. It’s a fair bet that, on the day, a large proportion of Eskom’s staff, irrespective of function, will be on annual leave, curling their corporate toes in the sands of Bali or some similar location befitting their stupendous salaries. In case Eskom missed the memo, Christmas is the nearest to a universal holiday around the world, even for power station design and commissioning engineers.
It’s also reported that major maintenance, even “surgery”, is now required on nearly 40 percent of all our generating units but there is no report as to how Eskom intends to tackle this enormous backlog, previously described as a fatal avalanche in the making.
The only realistic solution is to sell the power stations to a responsible operator before Eskom reduces their value to the same as its credit rating – a pile of junk. And how it would sell Medupi and Kusile, without incurring another mind-boggling loss, is a very serious question.
Instead of announcing a 100-day countdown to Christmas Eve, why doesn’t Eskom assure the nation that all the scares, about badly welded boiler tubes and dysfunctional control systems, have been resolved rather than still lurking in a technological jungle beyond the understanding of much of Eskom’s management?
This is the same organisation that committed half of its chief financial officer’s time to project management at Medupi.
Surely Eskom understands that most of us don’t believe in Santa Claus, nor the Tooth Fairy, not even the Easter Bunny, much less in Eskom’s ability to press the right buttons in the right order to obtain synchronisation, or to keep the unit online. But this is Eskom and virtually any imaginable outcome is possible, including a visit by Santa Claus, although we could consider the Easter Bunny as a more appropriate visitor.
Roger Toms
Hout Bay
Very good profit data belie banks’ worry
THE ARTICLE headlined “Economy a threat to bank groups”, (Business Report, September 17) refers.
Most of the article stresses the difficult and uncertain economic times our country and indeed many other countries have experienced and are still trying to cope with and how our banks are ever so concerned about all this, to the point of feeling threatened, as reflected in the headline.
It is undoubtedly true that there are serious problems aplenty just about everywhere. However, the tone of the article begs the question as to how threatened our banks really are and whether or not this message of doom and gloom is warranted or is perhaps just a clever smoke screen to hide behind so as to obscure a situation that is not so bad at all.
So let us look at the average figures:
n Headline earnings up 13.1 percent compared with last year;
n Return on equity of 17.1 percent;
n Operating income still increased 9.5 percent compared with last year after a 9.8 percent increase in operating expenses.
These are the official figures and one can safely say that in these uncertain and problematic times these percentages are good. Very good. Too good.
We all know that banks are necessary institutions and we also know that many problems, not least of them plain greed and irresponsible trading, have necessitated huge government (taxpayer) support. We also know that as things stand now, banks are yet again hauling it in big time while evading risk as much as possible and rewarding executives excessively. Has anything changed?
In our country bank fees rise steadily year on year without pause and have always been exorbitant to the point of extortion while loans of whatever nature are very difficult to get. So please spare us the whining and self-serving complaints of fat cats. The above percentages show where the money goes.
E Sjouerman
Hout Bay
Minimum wage can shut out unemployed
I AM not an economist but read with ongoing interest the opinions on the “minimum wage” issue for a definite reason.
It makes me think of a time when I was homeless and jobless many years ago, and when I was very regularly very hungry. I had to sleep under the stars on the beach and a few other places. I was desperately willing to do any work for just a piece of bread. Searching, I eventually found a willing pizza restaurant manager (or owner, I am not sure) who would provide me with some work.
Very happy to clean and scrub the restaurant’s toilet, I was rewarded with a big pizza slice or two. It was the most delicious meal I have ever eaten… and the most valuable (and grateful-to-have) job I have ever had.
Those tasty slices got me through a really tough time in my life. I was willing – and just barely able – to work for any food, and the generous employer was willing to provide me with the menial work, which to this day, 30 years later, I am still most grateful for.
If a minimum wage had prevented him from providing me with work, I really do not know what would have happened to me – except that I know I would have become much hungrier.
That employer at that stage might not have been able to afford to pay any more than a few pizza slices. Even if not, I am nevertheless so glad that he did not adhere to any “whatever minimum policy”. His payment was my blessing. From a life experience such as this – and other similar ones at the time – I struggle to see the economic sense of a law on minimum wage.
Oh! and as it turned out later, I eventually went on to learn the skills of kitchen work in the same restaurant by making beautiful pizzas for the customers.
KEITH VAN WYK
DURBAN
Home Affairs office in Pinetown not helpful
HOW CAN the Home Affairs office in Pinetown simply stop paying social grants that are so vital in staying alive?
After many visits, the answer can vary from “try tomorrow, next week or on the 22nd at the Pinetown Civic Centre”, while the official munches on half a chicken that I wish I could afford. If this is how old-age pensioners are treated in the new South Africa then heaven help us and no wonder so many commit suicide.
Arthur Reed
Pinetown