By Trevor Ngwane
THE announcement of an 18.65% electricity tariff increase amid Stage 6 load shedding has left the country angry and confused.
Last week, the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announced the above-inflation increase, in the context of growing frustration with Eskom’s rolling blackouts that have disrupted lives and had devastating consequences for the economy.
“Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad,” is a proverb that might cross people’s minds in these difficult times.
Never mind the shortcomings and incompetence of and mismanagement by Eskom bosses, or the controversial decision by the pusillanimous Nersa, ultimately the buck stops with the ANC government – the sole shareholder of the state-owned entity. The country is in the dark about whether and when the energy crisis will ever be overcome.
Who can fix Eskom? Can it be fixed? Which policies can get the country out of the dark hole?
Under the ANC government, the vision of a better life for all has lost its credibility and power to inspire.
It has become smaller, distorted and emaciated. The vision of attaining clean, safe, affordable and reliable energy for all has been reduced to keeping the lights on for as long as possible in a day, to avert the collapse of the electricity grid. Where there was hope there is hopelessness. Trust has been replaced by distrust.
The incredulous sharp rise in the price of electricity is helping to sharpen people’s minds and have them think hard about where the the country is heading and how its major problems can be solved.
The public response to the tariff increases and the solutions are proposed appears to follow class divisions and interests.
First, there are those who seek “public sector” solutions that are arguably in line with the vision of a better life for all.
Second, there are those who seek “private sector” solutions that prioritise profit over need and privilege over universal access.
In other words, although the energy crisis appears to put us all in the same boat, some passengers are travelling first class. If the Titanic were to sink, they have first-priority access to the lifeboats.
Big business enjoys the lion’s share of our energy resources today and in the past. Under apartheid, some of the corporations, now called the “energy-intensive users group”, enjoyed secret low-price sweetheart deals with Eskom.
The cheap energy they enjoyed amounted to a subsidy from the state that allowed them to make super-profits.
Another subsidy was the cheap black labour they enjoyed, courtesy of apartheid laws such as the pass system and the migrant labour system.
Under apartheid, the middle classes were mostly white. They were privileged and cushioned by the racist state, had their interests tied to those of big business and enjoyed abundant cheap energy. The black middle class in post-apartheid society is fighting to enjoy the same benefits as their white counterparts.
On the other hand, the lives of the black working class and the poor are characterised by hardship and suffering.
Under apartheid, black workers- class areas were called “dark cities” because there were no electricity connections despite black labour’s role in digging out the coal that fired Eskom’s furnaces.
For example, the electrification of Soweto began only in 1979 under David Thebehali, the apartheid puppet mayor, and in response to the June 16, 1976 student uprising.
Today, we see continuities of apartheid oppression and exploitation in “energy racism”, whereby black working-class areas enjoy less energy, suffer under “load reduction” and are scapegoated for having a culture of non-payment.
The Nersa tariff increase is a clear indication to all sectors of society that Eskom and the ANC government have no solution to the energy crisis.
Indeed, Nersa complained that Eskom wants more money so that it can continue to burn more diesel, with no hope of ending load shedding.
The Eskom CEO recently resigned without completing his job. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s National Energy Crisis Committee is intent on the privatisation of energy generation.
Privatisation, commercialisation and financialisation are designed to channel public money into private pockets. The principles of cost-recovery and the user-must-pay can only further rob the working class and the poor of access to energy.
The ANC government cannot solve the energy crisis because it has shifted away from serving the people and is serving the rich.
This government is allowing an electricity tariff increase that will hit the working class hard but is refusing to pay public sector workers a living wage. Where will workers get the money to pay?
Now is the time for working-class communities fighting for water, energy, education, houses and health care for all to unite with trade unions fighting for a living wage. Power concedes nothing without a struggle. The unaffordable electricity tariffs are an attack on the working class and must be resisted in the streets. Power to the working class and the poor.
Ngwane is a director of the Centre for Sociological Research and Practice, the University of Johannesburg.