Wilson Johwa
9 November 2009
Johannesburg — THE opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) yesterday weighed in on the Eskom saga, saying the government must choose whether it wanted electricity or to engage in another "misguided" debate on race.
The leadership crisis at Eskom -- along with the proposed 45% annual hike in electricity tariffs over three years -- is believed to be among the issues discussed by the African National Congress' (ANC's) national executive committee this weekend.
DA energy spokesman Cobus Schmidt said the ANC and other groups were seeing race in Eskom's leadership crisis instead of ensuring Eskom had the best leadership.
The ANC Youth League, along with the Black Management Forum, have spoken out in support of beleaguered Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga, after the wrangle over whether he had in fact resigned or was being pushed out.
Schmidt accused Maroga of playing the race card, saying new information showed that he had dismissed American consultant Susan Olsen's report, mainly because she was white.
Olsen's seven-page memo reportedly warned that Eskom's internal practices were precipitating an energy crisis in SA.
Schmidt said Maroga claimed the Olsen memo was one of the signs of the "white supervision phenomenon at Eskom".
Olsen reportedly warned that without intervention, Eskom's primary energy generation faced collapse, and that the parastatal would not be able to meet current needs, much less future requirements.
"This memo was delivered to Maroga just six months prior to the rolling blackouts that hit SA in early 2008, but his only action following it appears to have been to fire Olsen," said Schmidt.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
