SA’s black female unemployment crisis forces us to think differently about job creation and the effects of human behaviour on the planet
eskom
Posted inBusiness, Environment
Eskom’s emissions are not compatible with the South African constitution
The government must not cave to Eskom’s demand that it be exempt from air pollution rules. Furthermore, the power utility needs to stay true to the principles of its own just transition strategy
Posted inEnvironment
Lockdown regulations stoke energy poverty
And people who cannot afford electricity resort to burning biomass for warmth and cooking which has a detrimental effect on health
Posted inGeneral
Alternatives
The worst thing about limitations on individual freedoms, rights and responsibilities is that they impinge upon your options, choices and decision-making. Take for example the decision to deploy ANC cadres to government, the public service, the public enterprises and the parastatals; this has wrought havoc in your life, making it impossible for you live, work, […]
Posted inBusiness, General, News/Politics
Eskom is bent
If Eskom is bent, what is it going to take to straighten it out?
Posted inEnvironment, Equality, General, News/Politics, Tech
A world without electricity?
The prospect of living in a ‘world without electricity’ in South Africa has become a spectre that looms ever-larger by the day, as a mismanaged, looted-to-the-bone Eskom struggles to keep the ‘lights on’ — a misleading metaphor, insofar as it stands for the entire electricity-based economy of this country. In the era of fake news […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The stifling death grip of a dysfunctional bureaucracy
There is rarely spontaneous public applause for the efficiency and responsiveness of state entities. As well as almost limitless access to taxpayer funds, the impunity that assured employment affords, makes for public servant arrogance, sloth and waste. Combine these corrosive institutional traits with an African National Congress government that believes it has a God-ordained mandate […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Eskom simply has no clue…or does it?
Eskom. Just mentioning the name results in a flurry of negative emotions coursing through the veins of just about every South African. This energy crisis is probably the single most devastating event in the past 20 years, it’s destroying the confidence of the country as a whole and places our entire economy in a chokehold. […]
Posted inBusiness, News/Politics
Dear government, you’ve let things slide too far
My previous letter to you seemed to strike a chord with some of my fellow South Africans, hence this letter to you. Once more, I will use a point form approach. 1. We need decisive leadership. That does not mean holding a press conference. Apart from making you out to be perennial underachievers, they bear […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Farlam to Eskom: Finding the truth or hiding it
The commission of inquiry is one of the most useful tools in the politician’s toolbox. In the Westminster system of government it developed as a mechanism for government to seek opinion, advice and information from outside the narrow confines of the civil service. It soon grew into a way to build public trust by addressing […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The chortling schoolboy fluffs his sonorous monologue
It was the best and worse of South African political discourse. It was the raw hope of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison exactly 25 years ago this week, reduced to a squabbling farce. It was the magisterial Chair of the National Chamber of Provinces versus the classroom monitor pettiness of the Speaker of the National […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Hello Eskom my old friend
They tell me you’ll be visiting again soon bringing Load Shedding with you. They don’t know exactly when that will be, but knowing you guys, it’s safe to assume it will be at the most awkward moment possible. In preparation of your visit I went to the trouble jotting down notes to make your stay […]