Publications
Partners
Care of Zola Tsotsi, Eskom chairperson, and Brian Dames, Eskom CEO
Dear Eskom,
The citizens of South Africa are looking towards you to supply us with electricity - 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
We want electricity day and night, during summer and winter. We need it to prepare breakfast before we go to work and school, and again at night to cook dinner and watch television.
We also need electricity in the hours between breakfast and dinner. These hours are of crucial importance, because then we need to work to earn money to pay for the electricity we consume. During these hours, we produce goods and services to provide for the needs of people in SA.
Our factories and mines depend on your ability to provide enough electricity. They cannot operate without ample electricity. If they cannot work, they cannot earn profit and cannot pay their employees’ wages.
In addition, there won’t be any goods to export and earn foreign currency to the benefit of all in SA.
Eskom, you have the responsibility to produce electricity. You have been mandated by our elected representatives in parliament to generate and distribute electricity in SA.
Your have been receiving billions of rands in funding from government (also known as taxpayers' money) since the establishment of Eskom on March 1 1923.
You have had 90 years of experience - and we expect better service after 90 years.
From the view point of electricity consumers, things have not improved in the last 10 years since electricity supply became a problem and we experienced the first rolling blackouts and load shedding.
In fact, things got steadily worse to the extent that most South Africans accept that Eskom cannot produce enough electricity. Most people sympathise with you.
But, it has been 10 years! It has been 10 years in which we have had electricity disruptions, in which most municipalities have entered our homes and attached another box on our kitchen wall to switch off our warm water whenever they want, forcing us to buy more expensive light bulbs, putting into effect high electricity price hikes and refusing to buy electricity from our solar panels.
It is unacceptable to repeat your mantra, time after time, that “we are all in this together” and “we all have a role to play” or “it is everybody in SA’s responsibility to reduce power consumption”.
In your media briefing on Friday morning you stated it will take another 10 years before the problem of electricity supply will be properly solved. This means that you would have done crisis management for 20 years out of the last 20 years.
Eskom seems to be totally inept at solving problems. We have seen problems with coal supply contracts, technical breakdowns, Eskom’s inability to forecast strong growth in electricity demand, poor quality coal, a spanner in the works at Koeberg, problems dealing with politicians and contractors, disruptions in supply from Cahora Bassa and currently problems with wet coal due to excessive rain.
We used to believe that you had very good plans to develop the electricity network and the skills to execute these plans. We understand that it is difficult to deal with politicians, who need to ratify all your decisions.
Maybe that is the main problem, which is difficult for you to say aloud and still keep your job. Unfortunately, that is one of the key aspects you have to deal with, together with all the technical problems of wet coal. Overall, it is still your responsibility.
We appreciate your efforts.
Yours sincerely
Adriaan Kruger
SA citizen
Dear Eskom,
The citizens of South Africa are looking towards you to supply us with electricity - 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
We want electricity day and night, during summer and winter. We need it to prepare breakfast before we go to work and school, and again at night to cook dinner and watch television.
We also need electricity in the hours between breakfast and dinner. These hours are of crucial importance, because then we need to work to earn money to pay for the electricity we consume. During these hours, we produce goods and services to provide for the needs of people in SA.
Our factories and mines depend on your ability to provide enough electricity. They cannot operate without ample electricity. If they cannot work, they cannot earn profit and cannot pay their employees’ wages.
In addition, there won’t be any goods to export and earn foreign currency to the benefit of all in SA.
Eskom, you have the responsibility to produce electricity. You have been mandated by our elected representatives in parliament to generate and distribute electricity in SA.
Your have been receiving billions of rands in funding from government (also known as taxpayers' money) since the establishment of Eskom on March 1 1923.
You have had 90 years of experience - and we expect better service after 90 years.
From the view point of electricity consumers, things have not improved in the last 10 years since electricity supply became a problem and we experienced the first rolling blackouts and load shedding.
In fact, things got steadily worse to the extent that most South Africans accept that Eskom cannot produce enough electricity. Most people sympathise with you.
But, it has been 10 years! It has been 10 years in which we have had electricity disruptions, in which most municipalities have entered our homes and attached another box on our kitchen wall to switch off our warm water whenever they want, forcing us to buy more expensive light bulbs, putting into effect high electricity price hikes and refusing to buy electricity from our solar panels.
It is unacceptable to repeat your mantra, time after time, that “we are all in this together” and “we all have a role to play” or “it is everybody in SA’s responsibility to reduce power consumption”.
In your media briefing on Friday morning you stated it will take another 10 years before the problem of electricity supply will be properly solved. This means that you would have done crisis management for 20 years out of the last 20 years.
Eskom seems to be totally inept at solving problems. We have seen problems with coal supply contracts, technical breakdowns, Eskom’s inability to forecast strong growth in electricity demand, poor quality coal, a spanner in the works at Koeberg, problems dealing with politicians and contractors, disruptions in supply from Cahora Bassa and currently problems with wet coal due to excessive rain.
We used to believe that you had very good plans to develop the electricity network and the skills to execute these plans. We understand that it is difficult to deal with politicians, who need to ratify all your decisions.
Maybe that is the main problem, which is difficult for you to say aloud and still keep your job. Unfortunately, that is one of the key aspects you have to deal with, together with all the technical problems of wet coal. Overall, it is still your responsibility.
We appreciate your efforts.
Yours sincerely
Adriaan Kruger
SA citizen
