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.”