Eskom: We don’t need more empty plans

Support our plan to save Eskom before it takes the entire country down with it: https://keepthelightson.co.za

In an unprecedented move, President Ramaphosa has penned an opinion piece in the Daily Maverick. This is indicative of the ANC closing ranks and embarking on a media campaign. The message is that the ANC has finally woken up, albeit at five to twelve to the hour, to the severe challenges posed by Eskom to the economy and citizens.

Ramaphosa now acknowledges the deeper challenges at the institution, ranging from its severe financial situation to inadequate adherence to its maintenance programme, and from a growing deficit of financial skills to poor procurement practices. Informed commentators, opposition parties, primarily the Democratic Alliance have highlighted these “challenges” over the past ten years and more.

The everyman translation of Ramaphosa’s stance is: We have squandered financial resources, neglected crucial maintenance over decades, deployed useless cadres and facilitated theft via opaque procurement.

The solution now presented is the utility’s 2018 nine-point plan – yet another recovery and maintenance plan as well as short term measures to minimise blackouts in the new year. We have been sold this mantra since 2015 ( and for years prior) when Ramaphosa headed the Eskom war room. Now we have yet another war room.

But here is still no mention of transparency and accountability. It is still command and control and the same levers to address issues that are systematically entrenched in the utility will not be opened to scrutiny.

The DA has called for an independent forensic audit. This will uncover the crooked contracts and the entrenched procedures and culture that has delivered us to the brink of a shutdown.

Eskom also needs new external auditors. The incumbents, SizweNtsalubaGobodo-Grant Thornton, are a merger of some small local firms with a tier 2 international firm. They have released statements on irregularities but have not made plain the level of financial misstatement.

By comparison, the SA Banking Regulator requires joint audits by tier 1 audit firms to audit the banks as well as a mandatory rotation of audit firm appointments. This is to ensure disclosure issues are regularly cleaned out and for auditors to be visibly independent. Eskom must appoint a respected tier 1 firm as joint auditor.

Only then will the country know who stole via what existing contacts, and what needs to be done to fix this systemic rot.

Full disclosure is needed, not more command and control. Open the books to an independent forensic audit and appoint a competent and respected joint auditor. Now is the time to come clean and implement, and not obfuscate and present yet another raft of plans in a systemically compromised entity.

The DA has been active in finding solutions. This year we tabled our Cheaper Electricity Bill, formally known as the Independent Electricity Management Operator (IEMO) Bill. The Bill seeks to break Eskom into two separate entities – a generation and transmission/distribution entity. Our plan would see a generation entity that is privatised in an effort to break Eskom’s monopoly on the production of energy, allowing Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to compete on an equal footing in the generation sector.

We want to be part of the solution, but it requires political maturity and the will to sit around the same table with full transparency and disclosure.

DA calls for a full independent forensic audit of Eskom

Support our plan to save Eskom before it takes the entire country down with it: https://keepthelightson.co.za

Given the dire state of power utility Eskom, the effect on the economy and the lives of ordinary citizens, the Democratic Alliance hereby calls for a full independent forensic audit of Eskom.

The system of patronage, graft and political paybacks have prevailed, and urgent steps need to be taken to remedy the situation. This rot cannot be left unattended, as it has for decades, under successive ANC governments.

This follows remarks for Jan Oberholzer, Eskom’s COO in media interviews that “it doesn’t help to blame others for what happened in the past” and that “Eskom is captured … [it] runs right through the entire organisation”.

Additionally, it is not sufficient to re-establish an Energy War Room to be chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza, which will include Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni, Minister of Energy Gwede Mantashe and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan – the same quartet that has delivered the utility and the country to this parlous place.

What is needed is a thorough investigation into the maladministration and rot that has beset this key utility. Current measures announced by the Presidency, including the accelerated installation of André de Ruyter as Eskom’s new CEO, raises questions about the terms of reference of his appointment and whether this would involve buying him out of his current contract with Nampak.

The government on Friday asked industry for the cheapest and quickest options to ease a power crunch. What has been put forward, and what is to be implemented? Answers are needed – with urgency.

Currently, twenty-year plus Evergreen contracts which will cost the country an estimated R1.4 trillion are in existence and the former Minister has refused to disclose the 27 IPP owners. This failure to disclose pertinent information creates more doubt and a heightened worry that those who participated in State Capture are still beneficiaries at the cost of the average South African and our economy as a whole!

The country needs to know. We demand disclosure.

Ramaphosa’s 14 000 pardons a slap in the face to victims of crime

The announcement by President Ramaphosa that he intends issuing blanket pardons or “special remissions” to certain categories of criminal offenders gives the lie to the lip service he and his party pays to due process, the rule of law and his superficial commitment to combating rampant crime in South Africa.

The under-resourced and severely constrained police force works tirelessly, often with little or no recognition to investigate crime and prepare evidence for criminal trial. Prosecutors work equally tirelessly under severe constraints to prosecute those cases in an effort to make South Africa a safer place for all. The fruits of their hard labour are now to be rewarded by “special remissions” for over 14 000 convicted criminals.

The slap in the face that this reckless, foolhardy approach represents to the literally thousands of South Africans who fall victim to crime on a daily basis, cannot be overstated. To suggest, as the ANC does, that South African prisons “shall only (be) for serious crimes against the people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance” is to understate the nature of the problem to the point of the bizarre.

The Department of Correctional Services has been under-resourced and stolen blind for decades under a succession of questionable appointments who enthusiastically enabled corruption and State Capture, to the point that our prisons are now demonstrably incapable of rehabilitation in even the most basic form. The unacceptable state of financial management has deteriorated markedly under Arthur Fraser, who successfully destroyed the capabilities of the SSA, and instead of attending to these serious issues the President and his Minister take the route of politically convenient mass pardons.

The result of this indefensible action by the President, ably supported by his Minister, is the release of, inter alia, Kanya Cekeshe, the #FeesMustFall activist, who set fire to a Police vehicle during protest action, thereby destroying already scarce police resources, and the AbaThembu King, Dalindyebo, who is serving a 12-year sentence for serious offence including arson, culpable homicide, assault GBH and kidnapping.

Attempts by both to secure their release through legal proceedings have been exhausted and have resulted in failure. This announcement by the President will result in an excess of 14 000 criminals being released in order to provide “cover” for the release of these two and other politically expedient “pardons”. In both cases, the politically motivated decision to secure their release at all costs has been frustrated by due process, since simply put, neither meet the legal criteria for release.

This amounts to circumventing the rule of law and is both transparent and deeply concerning. South Africans have the right to be and should be, outraged. None of the prescribed conditions for parole will be complied with in this mass release, and when, inevitably, a large number of those released in this reckless frolic return to crime and its consequences, our President will no doubt again be “shocked”. But this time he will be unable to prevaricate and will have to shoulder the blame.

Let us build the reconciled South Africa we once dreamed of

My fellow South Africans

As we approach the end of the year and reflect on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in 2020, let us pause on this Day of Reconciliation to gauge where we stand as a country, and where we ought to be heading.

Twenty-five years into our democracy one would have hoped that the scars of our divided past were well on their way to healing, and that the symbolic freedom of 1994 would have translated into a real, substantive freedom for millions of South Africans who had been locked out of opportunity and the economy. But the reality is that ours is still a country beset by crippling poverty and deep divides.

Instead of highlighting how far we have come as a society, Reconciliation Day instead serves to point out how far we still have to go. It reminds us that we once shared a dream for a united, inclusive and reconciled South Africa, and that our current course is taking us further and further away from that dream.

Not everyone shares this dream though. Many in our country still benefit from keeping us mistrustful of one another. There are many for whom conflict, blame and resentment are powerful weapons with which to cling to power, and these people will continue to drive wedges between us.

But that can’t be the future of our country. There are too many of us who want to make it work – who have the same vision of a South Africa shared by all and with opportunities for all – for us to give in to those who only seek to divide.

Our challenges may be daunting, but they are not insurmountable. If we act now, and if we harness the power of all those who want what’s best for South Africa, we still have enough time to overcome these challenges. This will require a new kind of coalition that truly has the interests of ordinary South Africans at heart.

Some will point to the collapse of the coalitions and voting agreements in certain metros as proof that coalitions do not work in South Africa. But that is simply not true. Coalitions do work, as long as the partners stand in agreement on the core objectives and principles. This means that they have to agree on building an inclusive economy around sustained economic growth, they have to agree on clean, corruption-free governance and they have to respect the Constitution and the Rule of Law. With that as an unshakable foundation, we can make any coalition work for the people.

We made a very complex coalition work in the City of Cape Town back in 2006, and we came very close to doing so in Nelson Mandela Bay. But there, as in Johannesburg and Tshwane, it became clear that the forces of corruption and patronage would do anything to undermine clean, accountable governance. We all learnt some tough yet valuable lessons about partnerships that don’t share the same intentions.

If we want Reconciliation Day to become a celebration of a unified and reconciled South Africa, as opposed to a reminder of how far we still have to travel, then we have to start building that country today. And we have to learn to turn our backs on those who don’t share this vision.

DA welcomes High Court denial of PP’s appeal of the Gupta-linked Estina Vrede Dairy project

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the outcome of the North Gauteng High Court denying the Public Protector leave to appeal the judgement of Judge Ronel Tolmay in the same court on 20 May 2019 with costs.

In her initial judgement, Judge Tolmay, quoting a case between the Democratic Alliance and the Speaker of the National Assembly and Others, indicated that the PP is “one of the most invaluable constitutional gifts to our nation in the fight against corruption, unlawful enrichment, prejudice and impropriety in State affairs and for the betterment of good governance.” The judgement indicated that the PP contravened the Public Protector Act and the Constitution, the very instruments that should have been used to investigate, expose and remediate the bureaucratic and political malfeasance in the Vrede Dairy Project.  It is for this reason that Judge Tolmay declared that the PP report regarding the Vrede Dairy Project be “set aside and declared unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid”.

The most important aspect of Judge Tolmay’s judgment relates to the beneficiaries of this project:  “The beneficiaries were the people who should have taken centre stage in this investigation, as they were the people, the vulnerable ones, for which her office was specifically created and who were deprived of an opportunity to benefit and better their circumstances. Instead they were ignored and their interests were relegated to a mere peripheral issue. It is an absolute disgrace that some, as yet unidentified people, benefited, while the poor and the marginalized were yet again robbed of an opportunity to better their circumstances.

The initial judgement ordered Public Protector BusisiweMkhwebane to pay 7,5% of the DA’s and the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution’s (Casac) costs in her personal capacity and 85% in her official capacity.

Today’s judgement denying the Public Protector the right to appeal the initial judgement on both merit and on the costs is a victory for the 80 beneficiaries of the project and the people of the Free State who have already been waiting for seven years for redress and justice. The judgement will ensure that further costs are not expended by the Public Protector, who cited her limited resources as a reason for the restricted initial investigation, on further unnecessary legal fees. She must now carry out a comprehensive investigation and ensure that her recommendations are in line with her role to ensure justice for the marginalised people in our society and remediatemalfeasance in government.

DA calls on South Africans to raise their objections to Section 25 Amendment Bill

The Section 25 Amendment Bill has been gazetted for public comment, please find attached a link to the DA’s objection website.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) remains against the Amendment of Section 25, the Property Clause, of the Constitution. However, at a meeting of Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee that met on Thursday 5 December 2019 it was agreed that the proposed amendments be gazetted.

The proposed amendment supported by the ANC will firstly allow for expropriation of land where the compensation can be nil. Secondly, and very concerning, is that the amendment proposes that legislation will be used to determine the circumstances under which compensation can be nil.

This is extremely problematic and concerning on two grounds. Although the amendments refer to land, it must be understood that land is not confined to agricultural land. It includes any land, ranging from farms to communal land, small holdings to urban property. The concept “land’ is not defined in the amendment. The Constitution in Section 25 (4)(b) stipulates that property is not limited to land, meaning any property. There should thus be no doubt that land in the amendment includes any form of land.

Secondly, the proposed amendment in a new Section 3(A) proposes that the circumstances to determine whether the compensation for land should be nil, should be left to legislation. This is highly problematic as the threshold requires for passing legislation is a simple majority in Parliament, whereas passing a constitutional amendment is much higher as two thirds majority plus six of the nine provinces in the NCOP are required. It also makes it possible for extremely arbitrary circumstances to be proposed through legislation.

The DA believes that any circumstances for expropriation should be included in the Constitution as this affects the very core of the Bill of Rights, your right to own property and the protection against the expropriation of your property in a way that amounts to confiscation.

The ANC has decided to rush this bill through and therefore the period for comments by the public, has been severely curtailed by the limited period of mid-December, the festive season and then January. At the first meeting of the committee the chairperson was quite adamant that the process should not be rushed and that there could even be a request for an extension. Since then there has been a sudden change and urgency. There is now a tremendous rush and the reply to my question in the committee regarding this, was met with a reply that can only be described as desperate, i.e. that the people of the country cannot wait any longer than 31 March.

The DA calls on everyone, who wants to protect our Constitution to object to this bill as we cannot allow an amendment to Section 25 the Bill of Rights.

Millionaire Ministers take the people of South Africa for fools

Please see attached a comparison of the previous and current Ministerial Handbooks.

After carefully studying the revised ministerial handbook, the Democratic Alliance (DA) is disgusted that the much-hyped new version of the handbook is nothing more than an effort to take the people of South Africa for fools. In fact, the only positive changes to the handbook that are even worth mentioning is that the state will no longer pay for security upgrades at minsters’ private homes, and the cap (although still too high) of R700 000 on vehicles for our millionaire ministers. The rest of the handbook is effectively a whitewash that tries to disguise the obscene benefits that the ANC is still showering on its cadres.

First, during the launch of the handbook last week, Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu claimed that the total number of staff members serving each minister was reduced from 13 to 7. This is simply not true. Instead, Ramaphosa and Mchunu conspired to merely move 6 out of the original 13 staff members out of a minister’s “private office” to new offices called “administration services” and “cabinet and parliamentary services.” (See annexure A in the attached handbook). 

The end result is that there was absolutely no change, with taxpayers still forking out millions of Rands for each minister to be served by 13 staff members, each deputy minister by 9, each premier by 12, and each MEC by 12. This is exactly the same as it was in previous versions of the handbook. Taxpayers even still pay for each millionaire minister to be served by a “food aide,” which is presumably someone who saves these ANC fat cats from even having to chew their own food. 

Next, the Ramaphosa administration tried to hide the fact that millionaire minister will effectively continue to fly business class on all international trips. While Mchunu said that all international trips shorter than two hours would be on economy class, the reality is that ministerial jaunts to shopping meccas like Dubai, New York and London are all on flights longer than two hours. 

In effect, this means that all ministers will still be flying business class internationally at taxpayer expense. Once the fat cats arrive in Dubai or New York, the new ministerial handbook still allows them to “make use of hotels which suit the status of [ministers]…5 star graded hotel or equivalent of a South African 5 star graded hotel.” In short: the luxury 5-star lifestyles of the ANC’s rich and shameless will roll on at the expense of the South African people.

But the government’s most egregious attempt to deceive the people of this country relates to the fact that retired ministers continue to receive 48 business class flights per year for the rest of their lives, courtesy of your tax money. Deputy ministers likewise continue to receive 36 business class tickets per year, while the spouses of retired ministers get 24 luxury flights per year and the spouses of former deputy ministers get 18 per year. 

Once again, this is exactly the same as it was in previous versions of the handbook dating back to at least 2007. Instead of removing this vulgar waste of money, Ramaphosa and Mchunu simply deleted this section from the new handbook in an attempt to hide it from citizens. 

During a parliamentary committee meeting on 6 November 2019, Mchunu confirmed that former ministers and deputies will continue to receive a “nearly unlimited number of business class tickets to fly for life.” To escape responsibility for these lifetime luxury flights, Mchunu made the lame excuse that “it’s a handbook for ministers, not for former ministers.” He also argued that because parliament pays for this vulgar benefit, he is entitled to simply delete it from the handbook to hide the facts from South Africans. Of course, simply hiding this clause does not change the fact that taxpayers will continue paying hundreds of millions for former ministers and deputies to live the high life.

This is now the second time in less than a year that the Ramaphosa administration has tried to take South Africans for fools on this issue. On 8 June 2019, Ramaphosa’s government adopted a revised version of the handbook that contained almost no changes. Mchunu was later forced to concede that the July version was in fact an “old-new” handbook. Now, only six months later, this administration has adopted yet another new version of the handbook that simply tries to hide the truth from citizens. 

The DA is disgusted by this flagrant attempt to fool the people of this country. Instead of the government running away from the need to slash wasteful expenditure on millionaire ministers, both current and retired, we reiterate our call on the ANC to follow the example of the DA-led Western Cape. Where we govern, there are no business class flights, no lifetime of benefits, no 5-star hotels, and no bloated personal offices with staff to help ministers chew their taxpayer-funded food. We will not relent in this battle to save this country from financial ruin through the limitless greed of ANC cadres.

Six steps National Government could immediately pursue to tackle SA’s energy crisis

Today, alongside the Western Cape Premier, and the Acting Mayors of Cape Town and Tshwane, I engaged a wide range of small business owners and entrepreneurs here in the Cape Town CBD who have been adversely affected by continuous rolling blackouts imposed on them by the beleaguered Eskom.

From café’s and coffee shops, to tech start-ups and tourism hubs, those who have taken the risk of starting a small business are being hit the hardest by what can only be described as a material failure of governance by the ANC National Government. Rolling blackouts are not merely a simple inconvenience, they are an assault on the livelihoods of business owners and their employees. When the power goes out our entire economy switches off – putting us on the back foot in an extremely competitive international economy.

Most small businesses operate on tight profit margins and often have no spare capital to cushion them against unforeseen losses. For them, power cuts mean an inability to pay staff, suppliers, rent and other operational costs. Many small businesses and entrepreneurs operate on the brink of closure, and on the brink of threatening the livelihoods and incomes of dozens of employees.

This is why decisive action is urgently required to begin reforming our country’s energy sector. The authority and mandate to do so lies with National Government and their dithering, dodging and indecision cannot continue a day longer.

In this light, I welcome President Ramaphosa’s decision to return home from his trip to Egypt in order to address this unfolding crisis after sustained pressure from the DA. Now that he’s back he must urgently address Parliament on the matter, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thandi Modise, has a duty to ensure this happens. Now is not the time for MPs to be sipping cocktails on the beach – they ought to be doing their jobs in finding solutions to SA’s energy crisis.

The call for Parliament to reconvene is further justified by the President’s underwhelming media briefing yesterday, in which he once again failed to provide the necessary leadership in chartering a clear way forward. A once again “surprised and shocked” Ramaphosa stated that:

  • There was so-called “sabotage” which led to the loss of 2000 megawatts (MW) of power and that the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the State Security Agency (SSA) will investigate this;
  • There will be no rolling blackouts between 17 December 2019 and 13 January 2020; and
  • Eskom’s management team is currently working on an “emergency recovery plan”.

While this may provide some limited reprieve in the short term, it fails to address the root causes of insecure energy supply. We cannot be putting band-aids on bullet wounds. Since 2014, President Ramaphosa has been in charge of turning around Eskom’s fortunes and yet he still has no grasp of the magnitude of the crisis, and the reform that is urgently required.

That is why today we set out six steps National Government could immediately pursue in order to reform our energy sector and tackle head-on the systemic issues that continue to undermine our economy and the livelihoods of millions of South Africans.

  1. Eskom must be immediately be split into two entities, one for generation and the other supply. Unlike the ANC’s proposal, these entities must be operated independently of each other. Allowing IPPs to generate and supply power to the grid will secure supply and bring down the cost of electricity through competition in the energy market. This must include renewable energy sources including wind, solar and hydro-electric power. The DA’s “Cheaper Electricity Bill” achieves exactly this and is currently before Parliament. it needs to be urgently passed;
  2. Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe should at once sign permissions for Independent Power Producers to provide additional power to the grid via qualifying municipalities, in terms of Section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act. He has the power to do so with the strike of a pen. If Mantashe will not do so, President Ramaphosa must instruct him to do so, or relieve him of his duties;
  3. Eskom should be permitted to procure coal from any and all sources, and not be contractually bound to the current restricted supplier list;
  4. Eskom must be sold diesel by PetroSA at a tax-free cost price;
  5. All electricity consumers must be placed onto smartmetres to collect electricity revenue on time; and
  6. Eskom employees must be declared an “essential service” in the economy and barred from going on strike.

In order to mitigate against the consequences of rolling blackouts, the DA-led Western Cape, City of Cape Town, and City of Tshwane governments are in the process of formulating and implementing disaster management plans. Essential services such as bulk water supply, sanitation services and clinics must be adequately managed, and all risks mitigated against.

Despite burdensome restrictions by National Government, DA-led governments are innovating in the following ways:

  • The Western Cape has introduced the Energy Security Game Changer which continues to diversify and conserve energy supply. This includes solar PV, electric vehicles, efficient water heaters, wheeling/energy trading and the roll out of IPP’s;
  • The Western Cape has also legalised the household production of solar energy for over 22 municipalities. In 18 of those, households can sell excess electricity back to the grid;
  • Six studies have been conducted exploring the potential of natural gas to supply power and create jobs in the Western Cape. The province continues to pursue its proposal for energy cooperation as it pertains to liquefied natural gas (LNG). Investment in LNG infrastructure alone could amount to over R20 billion, potentially creating almost 70 000 jobs.
  • IPP projects in the Western Cape have generated over 3 200 jobs per year, despite National Government’s onerous restrictions.
  • The City of Cape Town is currently seeking a legal remedy in court challenging the Minister of Energy and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to allow municipalities to purchase energy directly from IPPs. The City of Tshwane is also pursuing this, having written to the Minister of Energy as far back as March of this year requesting the same remedy;
  • The City of Cape Town has invested extensively in technologies to assist with the switching process during rolling blackouts. In addition, the Steenbras Dam generation capacity has been used to mitigate against the stage of rolling blackouts in Cape Town.

South Africa is fast running out of time to reform our energy sector, and in turn ensure a stable and affordable supply of uninterrupted energy that will attract investment, spur on economic growth and create much needed new jobs. Now is the time for action!

Mantashe might not have caused the problems behind rolling blackouts, but he is the biggest roadblock to SA’s energy security

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has never accused Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, of actually causing the problems that led to Stage 6 rolling blackouts earlier this week, but the minister must be held responsible for being the biggest roadblock to true energy security in South Africa.

While Eskom reports to Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, energy policy and electricity regulation is Mantashe’s responsibility. It is only Mantashe who can authorise new independent power producers. It is only Mantashe who can deregulate the small scale embedded generation market. It is only Mantashe who can give municipalities the permission to purchase electricity from IPPs. And it is only Mantashe who can amend schedule 2 of the Electricity Regulation Act to allow  users to produce up to 10MW of electricity for their own use.

The last point alone could take up to 1.3GW of demand off the grid, as mines and intensive users will be able to generate for own use.

Minister Mantashe is aware of all of this. We have raised it with him repeatedly. But he is trapped in an ideological box of his own creation, and appears unwilling to take the necessary steps to get power flowing to South Africa again.

Once again, the DA is reaching out to the Minister to offer our assistance in resolving this crisis. Now is not the time for party politics. It is time to save South Africa.

DA welcomes arrest of alleged SASSA fraudsters, calls for more future arrests

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the arrest of four women in KwaZulu-Natal in connection to fraud involving the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). Three of the women are purportedly government employees whilst the fourth is alleged to be an insurance consultant.

The women stand accused of defrauding SASSA of an estimated R900 000 through fictitious and dead beneficiaries.

This sort of criminality has become all too common in the social grants system, and the DA is of the view that there are still countless similar cases all around the country which are yet to be exposed.

We therefore welcome these arrests and implore upon SASSA, the Department of Social Development and law enforcement agencies to continue exposing the criminals in the social grants system and hold them to account to the fullest extent of the law.

This kind of fraud and corruption is utterly appalling, as it not only defrauds the state, but it defrauds the poor and vulnerable.