South Africa’s bright future will have to be candle-lit

WHEN the Chief Executive Officer of Eskom is reputed to earn a salary of R73 million per annum is it unreasonable for each of us to presume this man is the cat’s whiskers, the triple cream floating at the top of the milk bottle with the qualifications, experience and intellectual abilities of a giant among men?

So, how it is that Eskom has plunged us into an energy crisis that no amount of whitewashing by Alex Erwin and Eskom’s spin-doctors will satisfactorily answer. Rolling power cuts, huge economic losses and not a solution in sight!

Government proudly cites our current and projected growth rate as indicative of a “bright” future, bright being the operative word. Eskom is unable to supply our current power demands and given that they failed to make crucial decisions to build other power stations 10 years ago, means that bright future may actually have to be a “candle-lit” one.

When I was at The Playhouse Company with an annual budget in 2001 of about R50 million in cash and in kind maintenance from Public Works, employing 140 full-time staff and ad hoc staff, running and maintaining two huge complexes, and five theatres while promoting the cultural aspirations of the diverse population of KZN, I was expected to project and anticipate changes in funding, creative expression, technology and the other executive skills that characterise the portfolio of a managing director or CEO or COO.

The Post (South Africa)