We are now at that point where it no longer matters what reasons Eskom gives for moving us up a stage or two of load-shedding; the reality is that the state power utility cannot guarantee us uninterrupted access to electricity.
It is also our reality that despite failing on its sole mandate, the parastatal doesn’t tire in approaching the National Energy Regulator of SA on an annual basis in the hope of squeezing more rands out of our pockets for even less service.
News coming out of Megawatt Park on Friday was that Eskom is to apply for a 32% tariff hike, which will be effective from April 1 next year. If Nersa accedes to the company’s request, this will be yet another massive blow to long suffering citizens.
As if the proposed tariff increase was not shock enough, the power utility followed up with a statement, hardly a day later, announcing that it had escalated rolling power cuts to stage 5 for the weekend after the breakdown of five generating units overnight.
Yet no-one will be held accountable. Directors will continue collecting their board fees and executives will receive their handsome salaries and “performance bonuses”.
And the politicians? Well, they’ll continue doing what our politicians excel at — making the issue a political football with no interest in finding real solutions.
Others are pinning their hopes on the 2024 election, believing it will deliver a coalition government whose precarious existence would mean that it would have to find urgent solutions to the country’s pressing issues if it hoped to survive a term.
But, as the experience of the past few years at local government level has taught us, even administrations governed through coalitions are no guarantee that delivery happens.
The country is running out of time as the citizens are getting disillusioned and impatient.
The discontent does not only show itself through mass protests, strikes and the electorate staying away from the polls; it is also shown through the high number of citizens who are seriously thinking about emigrating.
Business Day this past week reported on Momentum Metropolitan CEO Hillie Meyer’s worry about the growing number of wealthy and skilled professionals leaving for other countries.
“The rich and wealthy are leaving. I’m concerned about the number of people who can afford our retirement and pension products ... We are dealing with a shrinking savings pool, so something’s got to give,” Meyer said, referring to the insurance industry.
The country is running out of time as the citizens are getting disillusioned and impatient
But he might as well be talking about the country’s tax base, which has been shrinking partly as a result of emigration.
The same report goes on to quote an FNB economist saying that one in five house sales in SA are due to emigration and, more worryingly, that 71% of those are by people aged between 35 and 44.
If anyone thought they could console themselves by believing the brain drain is a continuation of the phenomenon that started at the official end of apartheid — with some white citizens leaving as they were not certain of life under a predominantly black government — they’ll find a study released on Friday by the Social Research Foundation sobering.
According to the foundation, a recent survey showed that although 16% of black respondents said they were considering emigrating, a whopping 67% of black respondents said they would prefer their children to live and work overseas.
Even if one were to doubt the SRF, given that it is fairly new or maybe because of its perceived ideological bent, anecdotal evidence in Gauteng and elsewhere seems to suggest that growing numbers of the black middle class — the greatest beneficiaries of the post-apartheid era — increasingly see leaving the country as an attractive option.
Ask any 12-year-old middle-class child where they would like to be when they finish school and they are most likely to pick a nation in Asia, Europe or the US.
Speaking to Business Times in this edition, Imre Nagy of the Independent Regulatory Board of Auditors said most of those who are leaving in his profession — black and white — do so mainly due to socioeconomic factors.
“Socioeconomic factors such as lack of safety and uncertainty about SA’s future are pushing them to look elsewhere ... It is an alarming trend and we’ll have to find solutions. We can’t let it kill the profession,” he said.
The experiences of various countries on our continent that suffered “brain drain” due to political upheavals, intolerable levels of state corruption, shortage of opportunities etc, show us that once you lose those skills it may take generations to replace them.
The only way to arrest the brain drain and ensure that SA continues to have a strong middle-class base is to fix her politics and government structures. Urgently.
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