1 post tagged “national intelligence agency”
South Africa's state-owned power utility, Eskom, has made some rather bizarre moves and comments lately. For one thing, Andrew Etzinger, its general manager for resources and investment strategies, is reported as saying: “There has been no load shedding since last Monday — mainly thanks to divine intervention.”
Comforting words. Roughly translated, it means: "We don't know what we are doing, and the fact that there have been no rolling blackouts since last Monday has nothing to do with our abilities as a power supplier. We simply don't know why everything is working as it should at the moment."
The utility has created a new unit within its executive management structure. The name of the unit, "Confidence Building and Communication”, sounds eerily like something out of George Orwell's novel, 1984, doesn't it?
But the comedie-noire does not stop there, and while Eskom does some pretty strange things, it is not alone. According to one report:
A desperate effort late last year by Eskom to hire skilled engineers and technicians to head off the looming power crisis was badly hobbled by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), which stepped in to prevent the utility from hiring foreigners without its consent.
The NIA wrote to Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga in November to warn him that Eskom’s facilities were national key points and that the presence of foreigners at them was a threat to national security.
So the presence of foreigners might compromise Eskom's ability to supply power to the country? Surely Eskom has proved it doesn't need foreigners to do that!
Certainly there is an increasing shortage of locals to help out. Another report indicates that 300 qualified engineers are leaving South Africa every year:
Large numbers of highly skilled South Africans, including engineers, are considering leaving the country in the wake of Eskom power debacle.
This has been confirmed by a variety of sources, including estate agents, removal companies and emigration consultants.
So if Eskom cannot find local engineers, and it can't hire foreign ones, what now?
It is no wonder that Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin says that South Africans can expect tight energy supply for another four years. Personally, I think that given the circumstances, the man is an optimist of note. Or perhaps "four years" is the new Orwellian term for "an indefinite period".
