Loadshedding has a face that details an ugly, costly, deliberately deceiving, and murderous picture

By: Clyde N.S Ramalaine

Loadshedding a somewhat less toxic and even less offensive construct on the ear belies the true violence and brutality of its daily impact. It could even by sheer sound conjure emotions of positivity a shared reality.

Its dictionary definition as a noun says it is understood as ‘action to reduce the load on something, especially the interruption of an electricity supply to avoid excessive load on the generating plant.‘

This definition protests an innocence when its experiential reality ends the lives of human beings on life- support equipment.

We are told, “Load shedding is aimed at removing the load from the power system when there is an imbalance between the electricity available and the electricity demand. If we did not shed load, then the whole national power system would switch off, and no one would have electricity.”

American English defines it as “the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part or parts of a power-distribution system, generally to prevent the failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system.” From this definition, we understand it as a deliberate action undertaken by management to prevent the collapse of the entire system. Explained as when the demand strains the system’s capacity.’ again, we must ask, what is the system’s ability? When is the system so stretched? Is such stretching of the system expected anytime -if so, how?

Minister of Minerals and Energy Gwede Mantashe, who recently took over from Gordhan the responsibility of Eskom, is on record to have said: “In Eskom, we have 48,000MW connected to the grid, but Eskom at best can give us 26,000MW. There is 22,000MW that is idling but connected. It is not decommissioned, and if there were a focus on servicing and maintaining those megawatts, we would not have load-shedding.”

Listening to Mantashe load-shedding is directly due to an idling 22,000 MW that still needs to be decommissioned. He locates the problem on a lack of servicing and maintenance of the idling 22,000MW. Suppose Mantashe is correct. The logical conclusion points to leadership and management failure, if not incompetence, that lacks the wherewithal to ensure the idled supply is serviced and maintained. I guess it comes down to leadership and management things Eskom purports to have in board and executive name representation, yet in actualized and lived experience, attest a mirage with Makwakwa and De Ruyter, its strategic and operational heads.

This begs the question, why the unrepented defense of Andre De Ruyter, who increasingly protests more like a politician and policeman, just not a CEO? We must hear him daily making political statements leading investigations into the stealing of toilet paper. If that is not enough, we are told he is being poisoned, and there are attempts on his life in what details scripted episodes of a tragicomedy to hide the total failure of his leadership. De Ruyter is afforded escape when his predecessors are not spared. De Ruyter is afforded space to ride with the entire South Africa into the unknown darkness of the proverbial night on what was long ago labelled a dead horse yet demands to be the jockey either in the CEO office or step-back position. Where in the world is a CEO of a state entity afforded the luxury to announce his resignation and call it a step back because he will continue to advise the entity he dismally failed to lead?

Loadshedding then, in definition, constricts and particularises it as a phenomenon only to be expected in moments of overload. As to be expected, moments of such excess would then manifest in the winter season. But in SA, regardless of the season or inactivity of an economy that ordinarily shuts down on December 15 and reopens on January 15, load shedding in contradiction to its definitions and descriptions presents itself arrogantly at whim. Where is the overload when half of the SA enterprises are shut down for a whole month? Explain where this overload emanates from when big and small businesses are enjoying ice cream on the beaches of South Africa.

A Farmer from Coligny in the North West is RIGHTFULLY suing the government for losing 40000 broiler chickens due to load shedding. When we talk about the adverse and horrific impact of load shedding on the economy, these become the primary examples.

How can an incompetent and useless ANC and SA president Cyril Ramaphosa and his ineffective leadership immanent in ministers Pravin Gordhan, his deputy, and Eskom leadership from the useless board under a misplaced and sector-compromised Makwakwa chairpersonship to the out-of-depth resigned but hanging around Andre de Ruyter whose track record in corporate CEO leadership as can be seen from SASOL, NAMPAK, now Eskom is more than dodgy be allowed to get away with this?

It is time we all populate the deception and show the horrendous shades of this orchestrated load shedding with an ultimate agenda at play.