Energy expert says ‘write Eskom’s obituary now’

Discussions about the future of Eskom are pointless as the power utility is already dead in the morgue. This was the view of energy analyst and expert Ted Blom who did not mince his words when asked in Cape Town about government’s plans to unbundle the utility in order to save it and move it into the future.
“Eskom’s governance has collapsed. We don’t know who is running Eskom because it certainly does not look like it is the board. All it can be is a third force,” said Blom. “We simply do not know who is held responsible because it is not maintained properly and not run properly.  So, in terms of the Eskom of the future – it’s
already dead in the morgue. All we are doing is throwing money at it for more people to be corrupt.” Blom, who has called for a forensic investigation into the power utility, said taxpayers were being lied to about the debt burden Eskom faced.  He said at least 75% of Eskom’s debt was
due to corruption and mismanagement. Citing the Medupi power plant as an example, he said: “In 2008 the quote for building Medupi was R33 billion. A year ago I went back to Eskom to verify that amount and today Medupi is running at R170 billion for a half-finished project. If that is not corruption
and mismanagement, then I don’t know what is and I don’t understand why we have to pay for that.” He said instead of looking at a future for Eskom it was far more productive to rather discuss the energy future where eventually most people from an economic necessity point of view would get off the grid.