MechChem Africa February 2019

The state of the nation?

I have never liked the term SONA. It hides from the core purpose of holding the event, which should be to thoroughly analyse where we are as a country so that we can develop improvement strategies. Byhonestly andopenly appraising the state of the nation, we ought to be able to identify the prob- lems holding us back and how best to resolve them. Maybe my views are too system’s bound, though, influenced by technical procedures such as mainte- nance and risk assessments to optimise long-term equipment performance. We have come to expect the annual SONA to be laden with political rah-rah, promises and assurances of abetter future–and in recent times, EFFdisruptions linked to ‘paying back the money’. President Cyril Ramaphosa started off his 2019 address by disarming his entire audience with a joke about his reluctance to sing, while expertly reminding us of his ‘ThumaMina’ catchphrase of 2018andneatly implying thatMmusiMaimanemight be an ally in sing- ing for Julias Malema should he ever have to present the State of the Nation Address himself. Onto the evaluation of our nation: The need for jobs was, as always, highlighted, with the Presidential Jobs Summit mooted in response to double the num- ber of jobs created every year. Ramaphosa also cited his Youth Employment Service, which sets out to put unemployed youth into paid internships. With respect to corruption, he promised to cure our countryof its “corrosiveeffects”; and to implement moves to stabilise and restore the credibility of state institutions such as the NPA, SARS and SAPS. He listed five tasks that will underpin everything Government does this year: accelerating inclusive economic growth and creating jobs; improving the education system and developing the skills we need now and into the future; improving the conditions of life for all SouthAfricans, especially the poor; stepping up the fight against corruption and state capture; and strengthening the capacity of the state to address the needs of the people. On land, he aims to expand agricultural output and promote inclusion, using “massive areas of unproduc- tive land that exist in South Africa”, including land parcels owned by the state. The big anticipated announcement was about the unbundling of Eskom into three separate entities – generation, transmission and distribution – which came with a warning, that bold decisions and decisive action may have painful consequences but would be “even more devastating if we delay”.

Peter Middleton

President Ramaphosa acknowledged that cor- ruption and mismanagement have severely damaged many state-owned companies and assured that evi- dence of criminal activity must be evaluated. “Where there is a basis to prosecute, prosecutionsmust follow swiftly, and stolen public funds must be recovered urgently,” he said. Overall, who can deny that our president is aware of the problems we face and that he is attempting, albeit at a snails’ pace, to address them. He is an astute politician andmuch easier to listen to – and like – than his predecessor. In spiteof reneweddetermination todeal with cor- ruption and to address the challenges at Eskom, the ANC’s disgraced and disbanded provincial executive committee (PEC), which includes its allegedly corrupt leader, Supra Mahumapelo, are back in charge in the North West Province; and Eskom has begun imple- menting Stage 2, Stage 3 and Stage 4 load shedding after up to seven of its generators tripped. In addition, the ‘good news’ that unemployment dropped from27.5%inQ3 last year to27.1%inQ4was reported.Wenowhave6.1-millionunemployedpeople between 15 and 64 years of age and only 16.5-million employed people. Events and statistics such as these bring intomuch sharper focus the real state of our nation. We are in a crisis of our own making and it is very difficult to see how political will alone can drag us out of it. Much has been made of Eskom’s financial failings, which have directly led to maintenance ‘neglect’. More concerning, however, is the recent emergence of poor reliability being experienced at the Medupi and Kusile plants, which were expected to relieve the burden on the older power stations. Suggestions are that this is design-related, which means it will af- fect every unit. According to Titus Mathe, the repair costs may amount to a further R8‑billion and “might take years to fix”. Rating agencyMoody’s is sceptical about the effect of unbundlingEskomas ameans to resolve its financial and technical woes, whileCosatu sees it as a back door to privatisation. What is clear is that, when it comes to strategic, expensive and highly technical SOEs such as Eskom, political interference along with corruption leads to disaster. On the other hand, competence – manage- rial, financial and, most importantly, technical – are absolutely vital. And many of these competences now lie in the private sector. q

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2 ¦ MechChem Africa • February 2019