South Africa has had its fair share of drama over the decades, so we’re all quite tough. But still, 2024 has been exhausting.
The ANC went and lost a whole general election, comprehensively deserved after three decades of stupid economic policy, deep state corruption and a vast indifference to the truth that doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is a sure sign of madness. The DA, miraculously, finally managed to get into government.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had just managed to turn electoral defeat into a sort of victory by forming a government of national unity, then threw what remained of his credibility as a leader by failing to fire a cabinet minister manifestly implicated in a scandalous bank robbery. And, oh yes, Trump.
Ramaphosa is normally politically astute and skiddy, but he will never quite recover from retaining Thembi Simelane in his cabinet this week. He appointed her minister of justice after the election but she was soon exposed as having taken hundreds of thousands of rands from a financial “adviser” now on trial for his role in the looting of the VBS bank in Limpopo. Subsequent reporting shows she has a lifestyle well beyond the means of a cabinet minister. Ramaphosa made her minister of human settlements.
It is a nauseating decision from a man always quick to proclaim his hatred of corruption and his commitment to ‘renewal’, and while she will not survive long in office, the stench will stick to the president long after she is gone
It is a nauseating decision from a man always quick to proclaim his hatred of corruption and his commitment to “renewal”, and while she will not survive long in office, the stench will stick to the president long after she is gone.
Ronald Lamola, the impressive minister of international relations & co-operation (foreign minister in plain language), will be livid. He would have been a Ramaphosa camp candidate to succeed him to the ANC leadership in 2027. But who will take Ramaphosa seriously now? There was real damage done this week.
It’s not the end of the world though. There are still real heroes for 2024 among us. My newsmakers of the year would be the Eskom team who dragged a crippled utility from the brink and ended load-shedding. Take a bow Bheki Nxumalo, head of generation at Eskom, and a chair, Mteto Nyati, who protects his executives.
The Eskom story is good for us because it shows what can be done when the politicians are kept away from a problem. It would also be remiss to not mention former chair Mpho Makwana, who started the process of recovery before resigning last year. I was cruel to him in a number of columns and I regret it.
As for myself, lessons have been learnt. I never dreamt Eskom could recover its energy availability factor (EAF) to the extent that it has, in the time it has, and I said so more than once. I was obviously wrong, obviously misinformed.
It’s patently vital that Eskom gets its EAF back to over 70% across its fleet. It is still in the mid-60s, having started the year briefly below 50%. But that would be enough — it needs to carry on producing old power while we build cleaner alternatives.
The future for energy, here and in the world we will want to export to, has to be free of fossil fuels, and while the agents and apostles of coal and oil and gas will have their day now as Trump turns the world upside down, the rise in renewable sources of energy is inexorable. China builds the renewable power equivalent of five nuclear plants every week.
We should also not stand in the way of developing nuclear technologies that promise reliable clean energy provided they are affordable. Years ago Eskom dropped development of the pebble-bed modular reactor, and the scientists that built it here back then are completing it now in the US. If smaller nuclear reactors work on land like they do in submarines they could change our future for the better.
My car of the year is the beloved Toyota Hilux Raider 4x4 automatic I bought in January 2014 for R450,000 and am about to trade in for not far from what I paid for it for: R320,000. It’s an insane retention of value and because of it my next Toyota isn’t going to cost me a Fortuner.
My gripe of the year is with Woolworths, which has completely run out of the low-carb snacks that used to line the shelves as you queue to pay. Wherever I go carb-clever bars, the little packets of quick-bite snacks of peanuts and edamame and cashews and whatever that I used to eat all the time are gone. You can’t get the cheese-flavoured seeded crackers anywhere!
Life sure is tough down here in the middle classes in South Africa, but provided you’re not poor, not sick, not old and not a Woolies sugar-free snack addict, this is a cool place to live and you’ll probably have a decent holiday.
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