South Africa and its SEOs: The beauty and the beast

When I go on holiday at the end of the year, I try to switch off and do the analogue thing of reading books, trying to ignore the news – not that easy when social media is a mere click or two away on the phone – and wallow in pulp fiction.

One of the six books I took with me was a copy of André de Ruyter’s account of his three years at the helm of Eskom, kindly loaned to me by my cousin’s son.

It was the last one I got around to reading because I didn’t want the lovely emptiness of the Karoo or the beauty of Knysna’s forests and lagoon tainted by the grim reality of South Africa.

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But even I, cynic that I am, was still taken aback by the depth of the criminal looting of the country exposed in De Ruyter’s book.

And, although what he revealed of the ANC’s asset-stripping was applicable to Eskom, I believe it is common to most other state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and anywhere else controlled by government where money flows.

De Ruyter recalls looking out of his office window at Eskom’s Megawatt Park headquarters in Joburg one afternoon at about 3.30pm, a good hour before official knocking-off time.

There was a queue of expensive vehicles – Range Rovers, BMWs, Audis and Mercs – driven by the utility’s senior and middle managers, waiting to get through the boom.

He recalls visits to power stations, being met by managers in “designer suits and pointy shoes…”

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In such places, the attire of the senior person was the only smart thing – the areas around generating units were filthy and, in many cases, dangerous because of neglect of basic housekeeping.

And that is what it is all about: the ruling party’s cadre deployees – and their families and assorted accomplices in the private sector – feasting on the increasingly skinny carcass of the taxpayer.

One could go through all the SOEs – starting with South African Airways (SAA) and see a similar story.

The airline is sucking up billions more of state money and the responsible minister, Pravin Gordhan, still has not managed to flog it off, the supposed deal with the Takatso consortium notwithstanding.

Although relaunching on various routes with great fanfare has meant SAA is spending buckets of money on hiring planes and pilots from Turkish airline Sun Express, we will never know what it is costing us, because SAA and Gordhan (who represents the shareholder, the government) have not released financial statements for the best part of a decade.

Still, I thought, let me just enjoy the beauty of our country… Well, as long as, in Knysna, you’re careful in not getting too much of the water from the lagoon on you because, under the new ANC-EFF headed council, sewage is escaping into the body of water, which is an internationally recognised wetland.

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Don’t be too perturbed either that, under the new regime, the garbage is not collected or potholes filled in.

Oh well, we thought, as we headed back to Joburg, at least Eskom has suspended load shedding until Friday… Err, no. Yet, at this time of the year, Joburg – at least the manicured suburbs part – is beautiful.

The summer symphony of barking dogs, hadedas and, from Tuesday, generators, told us we were back home.

They say that when the going gets tough, the tough get going – and South Africans of all stripes have proved this time and again.

But even the tough can get worn down. I can’t afford a Range Rover, never mind a designer suit and pointy shoes. Maybe I should join the ANC…