A war room could be Eskom’s saviour

During Winston Churchill’s time as UK prime minister, a war Cabinet formed by his coalition government was initially composed of five men: himself, Neville Chamberlain, Clement Attlee, Viscount Halifax and Arthur Greenwood.

But, as World War II progressed, Churchill’s team increased with significant additions.

Troubled by bouts of load shedding, the SA Cabinet this week resolved to revive the war room to come up with solutions to the embattled power utility Eskom, with Deputy President David Mabuza selected as chair and ministers Gwede Mantashe, Tito Mboweni and Pravin Gordhan as members.

Under Churchill, a war Cabinet was a reflection of a world which was at war with itself.

In SA’s situation, a war room signals a level of instability at Eskom, which has led to Cabinet also mandating Gordhan to negotiate for the early start of newly appointed chief executive officer (CEO) Andre de Ruyter.

When it comes to CEOs, Eskom’s door has been revolving.

With Eskom having had a war room before, the question many are asking is, what will change this time? Will this be yet another public relations exercise while we continue to be bruised by the impact of load shedding?

For the energy war to succeed, there are fundamental issues that have to be addressed to achieve the goal of bringing a lasting solution to Eskom’s woes.

Defining the challenges and zooming in to the core of Eskom’s rot – once ranked as one of the world’s best-run power utilities – should be the starting point.

There have been technical glitches at Eskom’s power stations, a pathetic financial state, rampant corruption, inefficiency, communication and stakeholder management weakness.

Given these, Mabuza and his team have their work cut out. He has to come up with various streams to address each of the identified areas, clear deliverables, milestones and a measurement mechanism.

In doing so, it is of paramount importance to enlarge the number of those in the war room to include former Eskom veterans and retired executives like Thulani Gcabashe, Brian Dames, Jacob Maroga and Andy Calitz, to tap into their experience and wisdom.

There should be honest and no-holds-barred discussions in an atmosphere that disregards the trappings of power and political seniority.

Legally forcing those who were part of the state capture project to repay public monies siphoned out of Eskom, should form part of it.

Writer and broadcaster Alec Hogg once warned: “If you were to inherit ownership of a large company, there are two options.

“The smart way is respecting the complexity of something with many moving parts.

“Leave existing management in place, but gradually change them as suitable replacements emerge.

“The dumb approach is to kick out the incumbents and bring in pals whose only qualification is loyalty to you – and blame the old regime as the company goes belly up.

“With so many examples of the consequences, the ANC’s ill-conceived strategy of cadre deployment continues.

“What adds to the problem is how easily these inexperienced appointees get influenced by lobbyists with obvious agendas.

“At a time when the cost of renewable power generation is plunging and Moore’s Law is also being seen in energy storage, government keeps pushing Eskom into an outdated agenda, convinced of the need to secure ‘baseload’ from antiquated options like nuclear and coal.”

Brian Sokutu.

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