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How many task teams does it take to screw in a light bulb? This is the question the country needs an answer to after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he had constituted a “special Cabinet committee” on Eskom, which would be led by Deputy President David Mabuza.
This committee – made up of ministers Pravin Gordhan (public enterprises); Jeff Radebe (energy); Tito Mboweni (finance); Blade Nzimande (transport); Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba (intelligence); and Bheki Cele (police) – will work with Eskom every day and provide daily reports on what actions need to be taken to secure energy supply.
This should indicate a hands-on president who wants to be kept abreast of developments, especially in the week when he expressed his anger at the sudden and unexpected load shedding.
But this latest team isn’t the first to deal with the same matter. Since December 2014, at least five critical interventions were announced by government but none seems to have found a solution to fix Eskom. Then president Jacob Zuma appointed Ramaphosa (then his deputy) to head a war room on Eskom. The brief was to deal with energy challenges and to produce short-, medium- and long-term plans.
Last January – shortly after Ramaphosa’s elevation – a new board led by veteran businessperson Jabu Mabuza was appointed to strengthen governance at Eskom. Phakamani Hadebe – who previously turned a corrupt and dysfunctional Land Bank around – was appointed CEO in an acting capacity and then full time.
There was a clean-out of tainted executives and a new strategy was adopted.
Then, two months ago, the Eskom Sustainability Task Team, consisting of more heavyweights, was appointed to assist the board and the executive. It was to provide initial recommendations by the end of January. Its recommendations formed part of Ramaphosa’s pronouncements on Eskom in his state of the nation address last week.
Yet still, with all the interventions, it seems we are far from fixing the wrongs at Eskom. South Africa spent the past week in the dark and we are none the wiser as to how the energy crisis that is crippling the country and hobbling the economy will be resolved.
And that is why we ask: Just how many task teams will it take to fix Eskom?
