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Blogs by Keith Rowley
It's a strange place! 11/30/2007 4:15:31 AM
I still love South Africa, but... We're in the midst of another round of power cuts here, or 'Load Shedding' as the incompetent technocrats of our electricity supplier, Eskom, call it.
For fifteen years now, we've enjoyed good economic growth under the auspices of the ANC government. During that time, there seems to have been precious little attention paid to our the commensurate growth in our power needs.
But that's not really the story...
The real story is that until recently, Eskom has had sufficient spare capacity to conceal it's abysmal capacity to maintain and repair its generators, which seem to be falling like nine-pins.
They lied extensively at first, claiming that rainy weather was causing demand problems - this in mid summer when demand is at a minimum!
Now they use the term 'unplanned maintenance'! I love this...
In the meantime, mines, hospitals, schools and homes wonder how many hours the lights will remain on in any given day.
I wonder, I just wonder, if this could have anything to do with the plea made by an ANC member just the other day, for abolition of the 'elitist ideas of competence' from our new society...
Also in the meantime, presidential hopeful JAcob Zuma has won the ANC Women's League nomination for leadership of the party. This despite previous and much publicised claims of severe sexual misconduct made against him and his rather odd attitude to unprotected sex, women, and AIDS. He's quite a character.
A few weeks ago the Scorpions (read FBI equivalent) was about to issues warrants for his arrest on corruption charges. The head of the Scorpions was removed by government and the warrants withheld (or so our press tells us).
Mr. Zuma could well be our next president, despite the strong and vociferous claims of corruption made against him in what appears to have been a very, very dirty arms deal. His best buddy is already behind bars for fifteen years.
And there's the other story...
How the hell does someone get fifteen years inside for taking a discount of a Mercedes? Few of us favor corruption, but fifteen years for a discount on a car? I'm talking about Schabir Sheik, Mr. Zuma's friend, who seems to have been treated worse than most murderers...
It's a strange country, but I love it...
Correction!!! It was charges against the chief of police Mr. Selebi that prompted the removal of the head of the Scorpions, not Mr. Zuma, although the events are strongly intertwined.
