Saturday, February 14, 2015
Max du preez. Zuma the one man wrecking ball.
ESKOM: The true story
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Theo Els <anythingels1@gmail.com>
Date: 9 Feb 2015 17:55
Subject: Fwd: FW: FW: ESKOM: The true
Date: 9 February 2015 at 17:29
Subject: FW: FW: ESKOM: The true story
This is the truth Mr. Etzinger……………..tell it to the people!!!!!!!!!!
The view below is from an Eskom engineer . (1977 – 2004) (Forced to take Early Pension due to Affirmative Action)
Eskom (when it was theElectricity Supply Commission) was one of the best companies in the world. It was owned by all South Africans, and was a non-profit making organization.
Money was always set aside, byselling electricity for more than it cost to produce, making profitfor replacement and expansion.
No World bank or Government loans)
In 1994 it was turned into a business with the government as sole shareholder. This was done to collect further tax from those who actually pay for electricity, and to provide a vehicle for the implementation of government policies in the form of job creation and black empowerment.
Profits, and the money set aside for replacement and expansion and maintenance, was paid to the government as dividends.
The sole 'shareholder' directly appointed most of the executive, and non-executive directors. These appointments came out of the ranks of the ANC, and were people with No managerial or Power Plant experience. The people started getting appointed & promoted based on nepotism. They couldn't perform the work, but,the people who could do the work, were retrenched based on skin color and were re-employed as contractors.
Although no additional work was getting done, (due to lack of funds because of the increased work force of roughly 23%) this was fine because the government wanted to reduce unemployment.
In order to bring relief to poverty stricken townships, Eskom directors were instructed to produce the cheapest electricity in the world.
This plan did not work, because of all the extra wages, contractors, a Management team that did not have a clue how to run a Power plant, Resulted in ESCOM running into huge losses for the first time in history. To compensate for this, the incompetentmanagement team cut the maintenance budget by 55%
These were the first “cracks” in the once stable, profit making Power giant’s foundation. The sole shareholder in the Mbeki era, wouldn't allow Eskom tobuild any further power stations,
saying that this would be done by private investors.
The private investors didn't come to the party becauseelectricity was too cheap(remember the reduced fee for the poverty stricken masses) to provide adequate return on investment.
Five years too late Eskom was allowed to expand and build 2 huge, new power stations, but it didn't have any money. . .
This had to be borrowed.
The reason for this was that the ANC government instructed ESCOM NOT to cut the power to non-paying black townships, resulting in HUGE losses. (In the 2014-2015 book year,
Soweto was R670 million in arrears, with more the than 5.2 million illegal aliens)
The “New” black uneducatedmanagement with no experience, signed a contract with the Richards bay Hillside Smelter. To deliver 120 MW of Power, for 25 years (Who in his right mind sign a contract for such a long period?) At a reduced cost of 27% of the real cost of electricity. ( 120 MW is enough power to run a City the size of Vereeniging)
The ANC the sole shareholder wanted a piece of the cake (the two new Power plants) and 'got' a big piece of Hitachi - the company who 'won' the contract to supply the boilers for these power stations.
Because of this Eskom wasn'tallowed to take Hitachi to court when Shit, sub grade materials were supplied.
Then Eskom, with it's reduced standards, attempted to project manage the construction ofthese new power stations by itself.
What a calamity !!!!!
The money was borrowed from the world bank, however because they are coal stations a requirement was the installation of flue gas desulpherisation. This hasn't happened (yet) because of insufficient water. So Eskom(They don’t mention the ANC Government) is in the Shit with the world bank. In Short,because of taxation, affirmative action, transformation, employment, equity,
BBBEE, lots and lots of corruption, a bloated and bureaucratic workforce etc,Eskom has run out of money and generation capacity, standards have dropped dramatically, corporate memory is being lost at an alarming ratedue to “forced” retrenchments of skilled, Qualified white persons with years of experience.
Today Eskom is attempting to borrow the money for the steam generator replacement at Koeberg from a French bank.
One of the questions that thisbank is asking is about post Fukushima safety improvement progress. Guess what !!!!!
Because there is no money ..........
As is always the case, SOMEONE must pay. So Eskom wanted to dramatically increase its price. The government (who is also the sole shareholder)wouldn't allow an increase large enough to cover the cost of its mismanagement.
So Eskom is bankrupt, And, there is no money for maintenance, so the situation will carry onuntil total break down is the last resort.