Business mogul calls for solutions not excuses

POWER OUTAGES – those iniquitous load-shedding programmes which are currently plaguing residential and business areas around the country – could bring our present economic boom to a crashing end. To compensate for power-producer Eskom’s inadequate capital spending on generating capacity, users are going to have to suffer – with power cuts already switching off traffic lights and forcing road traffic to a crawl; bringing lots of small businesses to their knees; slowing down industrial production; adding new time and cost challenges to our export industry; and probably threatening future investment in SA. “What is needed is solutions not excuses,” said Joe Schwenke, MD of major private equity firm, Business Partners – which funds about 3 000 of SA’s 600 000 small and medium sized businesses. “We’re all agreed that we can’t wait 5 to 10 years for longer-term solutions to come on stream,” Schwenke added, “and this nonsensical power shedding exercise is just not the answer.” What needs to be looked at as an interim solution, he suggested, is investment in 1 000-megawatt diesel generating outfits, for example. “Someone at Eskom needs to sit down and calculate just how many of these units are needed to keep up with the maximum power demand,” he said. “And it doesn’t matter if the answer’s five or ten units. It takes about one year from conception to start-up – and they need to get them ordered NOW.” They’re not cheap. Schwenke rates them as multi-billion rand installations – each. “The government and Eskom need to pay for it,” he said, “even if we pay for it later through tax. “But that cost needs to be paid, because the future of our economy depends on it.” Schwenke called for every business in SA to get on the roll – and make its dissatisfaction with the current Eskom plans known loud-and-clear. “We need to let them know that business in SA just won’t put up with it,” he said. “We need to brainstorm an action plan.” And Schwenke condemned the senior management thinking at Eskom. “Power shedding and voluntary power saving are the wrong approach,” he said. “As everyone in business will tell you, if things go wrong you need to think of the solution, no matter what the cost. Don’t make excuses.”