Reports in the press today reveal that Eskom has asked that certain portions of its submission for a 53% tariff increase to the Energy Regulator (NERSA) be withheld from public scrutiny for reasons of commercial sensitity.
NERSA has, apparently, complied with that request.
This is completely mind-blowing.
How can a state monopoly, with no competetion whatsoever in the electricity supply and distribution market, possibly have anything it does not wish to have made known to those competitors (who don’t exist)?
Who are they trying to hoodwink?
Unless, of course, there are certain facts concerning the actual costs of their operations, their actual profit margins and their staffing costs and overheads which, if the South African public were to become aware of, would reveal just how any application for increases in tariffs is unjustified and, possibly, fraudulent.
Eskom, you are a public entity. You have no competition. Ergo, you have no commercial secrets in the normal sense of the term.
Moreover, Eskom since you are state-owned that means that every member of the South African public is – both by definition and default – a shareholder and, as such, it is illegal to withhold or to seek to withhold information regarding your operations and finances.
All you are entitled to withhold, Eskom, is information regarding the physical operational security of your enterprise since you are a national strategic asset which could be vulnerable to attack and sabotage – and the secrecy necessary on that topic alone must be subject to the oversight (God help us) of the Minister of Safety and Security.
NERSA, in its lap dog roll-over for Eskom and the government which, (contrary to ANC, COSATU and overall public opinion, approves Eskom’s attempts to gouge the people of South Africa), appears to abrogate its statuted role as an independent regulator of the energy industry. The tail would appear to be wagging the dog…
One wonders what crumbs are being offered where and to whom; what quid pro quo is being negotiated behind our backs?
Maybe I’m being paranoid.
But am I being paranoid enough? Is it my imagination, or have the ANC and COSATU suddenly become suspiciously quiet and retiring on the Eskom debacle in recent days?
Incidentally, other media reports today reveal that the government has reserves of some US$34 billion. Reserves are desirable things to have because, in times of crisis, funds can be made available to counter or remedy that crisis.
Has no-one in the ANC or government yet realised that the Eskom situation is precisely that – a crisis – and that this might be an opportune and appropriate moment to apply some of those 34 billion Dollars to fixing this monumental – and wholly avoidable – problem without penalising the people and industries of South Africa?
Spearpoint.
