Miraculously, as of August 2024, Eskom managed to keep the lights on for over 150 days, ending a dismally dark year of loadshedding in 2023. The original thinking around the end of loadshedding before the elections was that unsustainable amounts of diesel were being used to keep the lights on, to manipulate voters into thinking that the ANC had solved the electricity crisis.
But 150+ days later, the lights are still on, with minimal public fuss. Eskom’s Chairman, Mteto Nyati, has given the reason for Eskom’s improved performance. Succinctly, Eskom shifted its maintenance strategy from hiring only smaller, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) compliant firms to working directly with the original equipment manufacturers (OEM).
While there are still structural issues that prevent Eskom from becoming completely reliable and as efficient as it could be, the fact that it has depoliticised its procurement and hiring process by ignoring BEE legislation and proved that BEE was causing loadshedding is a significant sign: one that must not be ignored.
BEE is probably the most fundamental problem affecting South Africa, in all sectors. At Eskom, BEE was used by corrupt firms, cadres and officials to make a quick buck, using political and legislative necessity as a proxy for merit and efficiency. As soon as Eskom abandoned its BEE requirements, it was able to start hiring experts based on merit and could save a lot of money by going directly to the manufacturer.
Imagine how much South Africa’s economy could grow, and how much the government could improve its own efficiency if it wasn’t stifled by the corruption-enabling lunacy that is BEE?
BEE, and all racial quotas in employment and procurement, have helped enable the widespread looting and destruction of the South African economy. While they were meant to encourage the employment and enrichment of previously disadvantaged South Africans, they have instead served only as a tool for the corrupt to extort well-paid positions from private sector companies. BEE has been used as a method for opportunistic firms to loot parastatals through overpriced, incompetently-implemented tenders. BEE breeds resentment between South Africans, benefiting only the already well-connected and conniving.
Companies that try to become BEE-compliant, to avoid hefty fines, jail time and the loss of profitable opportunities, often collapse as they are forced to appoint BEE officials to essential positions at their company: positions that the officials are often incapable of filling. If they were capable of filling such positions, they would not need BEE to get there.
Apartheid was established by the National Party because it wanted to economically benefit white citizens over black citizens. The original pre-Apartheid legislation that eventually led to segregation and petty oppression was a plethora of racial employment quotas aimed at forcing companies to hire and promote white workers rather than their black and coloured counterparts.
The hiring and promoting of individuals based on race rather than merit was the building block of Apartheid. And it has since become the foundation of post-1994 South Africa. BEE is claimed to exist to promote redress. But it has done nothing to uplift the poor. It only serves to breed resentment, while ensuring that corrupt, incompetent individuals are forced into positions of economic power, where they proceed to loot institutions and companies, while driving organisations into the ground.
The only reason that the South African economy can still function with the insane requirements of BEE legislation is because most people ignore it, flying under the radar, while some companies have found a sophisticated method of circumventing BEE requirements through “fronting” – a criminal offence that should rather be seen as an essential survival mechanism.
No good idea for a business or initiative can flourish while BEE credentials are required to get it off the ground. No company can survive, or want to grow, when the owners can be stripped of their profits and positions due to BEE. No government service can truly be competent when race is deemed a more important criterion for appointment than merit.
Eskom has proved what all truly honest and intelligent South Africans have known for decades; BEE is destroying this country. If we want to become a successful nation, BEE needs to be destroyed.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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