Last week Friday, April 28, a dark cloud precipitated the darkness that South Africa has come to be accustomed to and associated with.
The floodlight of wisdom and hope against pervasive ignorance, gossip, witchcraft and greed did not only dim, but switched off for the last time.
The light of energy expert Edward Blom, known fondly as Ted, switched off on Friday and sapped the last megawatt of energy that South Africa so desperately needs. If the passing of Ted is anything to go by, South Africa must be very afraid.
In the #InMyCrosshairs Space, a twitter space hosted by Carl Niehaus under the heading, “Can load shedding be ended”, chaired by energy expert Tshepo Kgadima, South Africa brought its best of black talent on the matter of power systems.
A session that was scheduled for two hours ran for four hours and there was no holding back. The heads of the debate were Adil Nchabeleng, the CEO of Transform RSA; Zak Madela, a director of the South African Energy Forum, Dr Kelvin Kemm, a veteran nuclear scientist; as well as Kgadima.
There were more than 240 participants with a hundred on the Twitter space and more than 100 participating from other platforms. No doubt the omnipresence of Blom was felt as the science of power systems pulsated throughout the four hours.
The science focused on the impact of the spectre that faces future generations because of the utter paucity of leadership in the people we have placed in position of power.
The centrepiece of the debate was the extent to which the motif force of greed, theft and duplicity that is deeply anti-science and deeply flawed intellectually dominates decision making on an existential national question. The unanimous answer to the question of “can load shedding be ended” was that under the current political and business leadership of the country, science has become taboo and for that reason load shedding cannot be ended, but a grimmer scenario is that the grid is bound to collapse.
This is the scenario that focussed the scientists on what will happen to future generations. It is in this regard that the science-based fighting spirit of Blom prevailed in this space.
The political economy of energy and the aversion to science has never been on steroids as has been under the sixth administration. The religious belief that solar and wind with battery storage can turn into base-load is so anti-science that it belongs to the barbarians of the dark ages.
Germany, the high priest of witchcraft, has just proven the religion wrong and abandoned the gossip and gone back to coal. It is in this context that Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in 1920 could have been addressing South Africa a century later when he said, “The three chief enemies that confront the Bolshevik Revolution are the following: the first is communist conceit; the second illiteracy, and the third bribery.”
Lenin’s thoughts were as follows:
“The First Enemy – Communist Conceit: A member of the Communist Party, who has not yet been combed out, and who imagines he can solve all his problems by issuing communist decrees, is guilty of communist conceit. Because he is still a member of the ruling party and is employed in some government office, he imagines this entitles him to talk about the results of political education. Nothing of the sort! That is only communist conceit.
“The point is to learn to impart political knowledge, but that we have not yet learnt. We have not yet learnt how to approach the subject properly.
“The Second Enemy – Illiteracy. As regards the second enemy, illiteracy, I can say that so long as there is such a thing as illiteracy in our country it is too much to talk about political education. This is not a political problem; it is a condition without which it is useless talking about politics.
“An illiterate person stands outside politics, he must first learn his ABC. Without that there can be no politics, without that there are rumours, gossip, fairy tales and prejudices, but not politics.
“The Third Enemy – Bribery. Lastly, if such a thing as bribery is possible it is no use talking about politics. Here we have not even an approach to politics; here it is impossible to pursue politics, because all measures are left hanging in the air and produce absolutely no results.
“A law applied in conditions which permit widespread bribery can only make things worse. Under such conditions no politics whatsoever can be pursued; the fundamental condition for engaging in politics is lacking.
“To be able to outline our political tasks to the people, to be able to say to the masses what things we must strive for (and this is what we should be doing!), we must understand that a higher cultural level of the masses is what is required. This higher level we must achieve, otherwise it will be impossible really to solve our problems,” Lenin said.
Sadly, these are the three challenges South Africa faces because of whom we have placed in position of power. The unanimous conclusion of the scientists was that the grid will collapse because of conceit, illiteracy and bribery due to those who are in a position of power.
Yet a different science-based outcome is possible and within reach if we listen to Blom from his freshly entombed place of eternal rest.
But Blom will turn in his grave if we allow these three obvious enemies to manifest in energy and elsewhere in South Africa.
Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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