Bring back the old pros at Eskom

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan must have swallowed his pride to finally admit that the country needs the help of trade union Solidarity to save Eskom.

The union says it has 1 000 people with technical skills to help get the power utility back on track – making the offer of assistance to Gordhan in May. Solidarity CEO Dirk Herman told Gordhan that the accelerated drive to “transform” Eskom – get rid of old, white employees, perhaps? – had backfired because it had left the organisation with a lack of technical skills.

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Gordhan’s acceptance of the offer is sensible: Eskom needs all the help it can get and now is not the time to play politics with the national power supply.

Let us hope that it is also an indication that the government is realising that the deployment of loyal ANC cadres – regardless of ability – into key infrastructure positions around the country has been an abject failure.

Look around at all the crumbling municipalities, which got rid of their experienced managers and engineers in the name of transformation, to see that is true. Bring back the skilled people. They can not only fix what is broken, they can properly train those who will follow.