Woe to us as Medupi monster strikes

At this stage as we approach Christmas, all the rain in Gauteng and the constant load shedding has put a serious damper on the festive mood.

It is also apt to use the word ‘stage’, because quite frankly Eskom loves to talk about stages of load shedding as if they were dealing with stages in a relationship.

Yet at this stage, the relationship between Eskom and the citizens of the Republic are very strained, to the point most people want a divorce.

You also have to wonder is there a person specifically in charge who decides what stage we are in? And maybe this is all that this person is assigned to do, sitting in a big old chair, enjoying a cozy monthly salary, and now and then shouts stage 2, 4, 6, or whatever as if we are playing bingo.

And what does all this stages really mean? Eskom talks about shedding megawatts, but for the ordinary person on the street we do not care about their problem with wet coal, or technical issues. We want to enjoy Christmas, with all the sparking lights.

By the way, our president cut short his international visits when Stage 6 was announced to convene an emergency meeting, as if a deadly plague was about to ravage the country (and we are not talking about listeriosis).

This means that it allows for up to 6 000 megawatts of the national load to be shed. It doubles the frequency of Stage 3, which means you will be scheduled for load shedding 18 times over a four-day period for four hours at a time, or 18 times over an eight-day period for two hours at a time.

Sadly, the once mighty Eskom has now become the butt of jokes.

At one time people joked that load shedding Stage 6 is when Eskom comes to your home and blows out the candles. Then there is the picture of Eskom driving away with the sun.

Another joke is that when people say they are angry with Eskom, the question then posed is at what stage have your realised this reality.

And in the midst of the entire crisis, for a long time the Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe has been missing in action. And suddenly, after Stage 6, he makes his appearance like a genie out of a bottle to announce his short and medium term interventions.

This included, among other things, that the process of purchasing energy from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) would be expedited.

Yet all of this is way too late. We are in a crisis, and it is not good for our Christmas joy. And also, who has any confidence in such interventions?

There was a time that parents scared children into being obedient by telling them the monster will get them. Well, that monster has a name, and is called Medupi.

Yes, Medupi is the new monster under the bed and in the closet. After all, this power plant that was meant to help end power outages has actually set Eskom back a few years, and is being blamed for Stage 6 load shedding.

Hilariously, the Eskom Se Push app, which alerts users to upcoming bouts of load shedding, usually has a detailed breakdown of what each stage means. But it was not ready for Stage 6.

Remember, Medupi was initially supposed to start producing power back in 2011, then 2013 and now, it will only be fully operational in 2020, a year late. The facility was meant to be South Africa’s saving grace in terms of electricity production, but instead it has been nothing but a headache to the government, Eskom and the South African people.

By the way, the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities believes Medupi’s woes are not due to bad management, but that the power utility is cursed.

Former chairperson Thoko Mkhwanazi-Xaluva said the site was ‘cursed’due to it being built near a burial site. Yes folks, the reason the Medupi power station is suffering delays is because graves were disturbed during construction, upsetting the ancestors.

It apparently has nothing to do with corruption, but unhappy ghosts. How far will South Africa plunge into its own circus of madness?

And according to the former chairperson, the saving grace of the country is dealing with bones that were strewn around in a way that was culturally and religiously sustainable, and therefore, logically, not hiring people who were actually competent to run Eskom or to empower the IPPs.

And then of course, South Africa is its own worst enemy, for like many developing countries, it has placed a heavy bet on coal for its development – a fuel that is plentiful, cheap and locally-sourced.

Yet, apart from the apparent health and climate costs being high, it is the coal that keeps adding to our power crisis.

And so we head towards a new year with the same woes. Potholes and criminals will also add to our frustration when we just want to relax and pretend we are living in a magical land of sustainable hope.

A land, therefore, which is not cursed because someone drove a bulldozer over a bony finger.