MASS MAIL 17 JANUARY 2008 - ACCOUNTABILITY

THE FOUNDATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA
"Participation Builds Unity"

"MADE IN AFRICA - FOR AFRICA"

FDA NEWSLETTER

MASS MAIL
17 JANUARY 2008
ACCOUNTABILITY – WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE?
(All)

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The AFRICA TRADE CENTRE AND THE FOUNDATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA proudly presents you with the following information that may add value to Africa's development.

ACCOUNTABILITY – WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE?

South Africans are experiencing the one dilemma that is common throughout the rest of Africa – unreliable electrical power supply.

In the last three days – Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – my office only had five hours of sporadic electricity use – this during the twenty six hours of ‘normal’ office hours – this equates to some 80% down-time. We all refer to this chaos as the black-out; load-shedding or power-failure, when in actual fact it boils down to lack of planning and more concerning lack of accountability!

Who is taking responsibility for this catastrophe that is costing the South African economy an immeasurable fortune!

I hold my Local Council or Municipality responsible – they undertook to provide the service and also collect my monies for this service, even if it is not available! They, the Municipality, must be held accountable to deliver – however, when confronted, they shrug their shoulders and blame the supplier – how convenient. The supplier on the other hand has endless excuses, yet refuses to be held accountable.

Our only alternative is to hold ‘the current’ Head of State accountable.

The supplier, in this case, just so happens to be a Government controlled entity and considering the fact that this Government ‘earned’ huge dividends from this entity over the past years, and considering the fact that Government is accountable to the People, the onus is therefore the President of the Country to take control and make amends.

A good start would be to curtail electricity supply to neighboring countries (who seldom pay for the electricity anyway) until the local demand is addressed.

Someone must be held accountable – as soon as we ‘pass the buck’ as with my Local Council, we are fighting a loosing battle!

Let’s take Ownership!

There is a major energy symposium taking place in Cape Town next week – hopefully some answers will be forthcoming from this event – herewith more detail:

ENDORSED BY THE FOUNDATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA
23 - 24 January
Cape Town, South Africa (Venue: Cape Town Convention Centre)
***** A SMi Group Ltd EVENT *****
ENERGYTECH-AFRICA CONFERENCE
The event presents an overriding theme of business and regional development through technology. This is the must attend event for those involved or considering being involved in the oil and gas industry throughout Africa.
Key questions such as:
How is oil and gas developing its African portfolio through technology development?
How the African oil and gas region as a whole (and in specific regions) can develop through improved technology in the future?
How can it be ensured that the workforce is comprised of local as well as international employees?
Contact: Verity NOON at 00 44 (0)20 7827 6092 Email: vnoon@smi-online.co.uk

It may be in your interest to browse the comprehensive list of CURRENT AND UPCOMING EVENTS SERVING AFRICA - see:
http://www.foundation-development-africa.org/africa_upcoming_events/index.htm

Take care
Peter

COMMENTS RECEIVED

17 January 2008
Peter,
You are completely right - the main problem is a lack of accountability.
This is unfortunately the main problem in Africa, nobody from the lowest position to the top is willing to take accountability as everything is blamed on outside circumstances like:
a. When you missed the bus, the bus was early.
b. When you did not complete the task it was because somebody else did not do his part in stead of at least saying " I am waiting for.....". The answer of course is to get it from whoever owes you the outstanding information.
One of our biggest challenges is to change this attitude from an external locus of control to an internal locus of control so people will take accountability.
Good luck with the good work that you are doing.
Regards,
Hans KRIEK
Land Systems OMC
SOUTH AFRICA

17 January 2008
Morning,
SOME REAL IDEAS! Further to your email just received;
Firstly, how nice not to be talking about crime at dinner parties (by candlelight). Thanks Eskom! There’s a new topic of conversation.

1. The Aluminium smelters at Richards Bay and Maputo are some of the largest consumers of electricity in the country designed to utilise Eskom’s surplus power. Turn them off during peak demand periods. Any “profit” made by Eskom from the smelters is at the massive expense of South African industry. All the smelter raw materials are imported so no mines in South Africa will be affected. We are propping up mines overseas at the expense of local industry – crazy! There is no longer a surplus!!!!!!

2. Eskom needs money to fund its expansion program and wants to raise tariffs and wants huge cash injections from the Government. SELL THE EXISTING POWER STATIONS! Private power producers will pay market prices for the stations, Eskom will get its cash and the stations are likely to be run better and more efficiently. Eskom doesn’t need to own all the power stations.

3. The biggest domestic consumers of electricity are water geysers and stoves/ovens. The Govt. has a tax surplus of billions of Rands. How about a 100% tax rebate to all households on the cost of installing solar panel geysers and gas fired kitchen appliances ? The power consumption reduction could be huge.

4. Municipalities could employ hundreds..make that thousands …of traffic wardens at traffic light intersections 15 minutes BEFORE the power cuts. Just work with Eskom and coordinate the placement of wardens with the power cut schedule and keep the traffic flowing. It’s creating jobs for at least the next 4-6 years and helping the economy operate.

5. Why are we supplying neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe who aren’t paying for it in the first place? I would LOVE to know how many KVA are being supplied to our neighbours at the expense of our own economy. Mozambique showed us up by cutting off Zimbabwe for not paying. Now THAT’S embarrassing.

I challenge you both to promote some or all of the above ideas constantly until somebody actually DOES something.
Why not ask the authorities why this can’t be done – or better still – to do it, live at the conference?
Greg BR> Private
SOUTH AFRICA

17 January 2008
Hi Peter,
Your email:::: Who is accountable?
This article below is very appropriate.

By: Matthew Hill
Published: 16 Jan 08 - 16:36
South Africa's Public Protector has launched a preliminary investigation into the rolling power cuts State-owned Eskom has implemented throughout the country, which it said was having a "devastating" effect on public service delivery as well as the private sector.
It also said that the power shedding "negatively affects the lives of many of the people of South Africa on a daily basis".
The agency sent a letter to Eskom CEO Jacob Maroga on Wednesday, requesting detailed information on a number of matters "as a matter of urgency".
These issues included the reasons behind the load shedding, the expected duration, the measures Eskom put in place to prevent the current situation, among others.
The Public Protector also asked Africa's biggest power producer what steps it intended taking to "compensate those that have suffered damages and/or inconvenience as a result of the load shedding".
Spokesperson for the protector Eric Ndiyane said in a telephone interview that the preliminary investigation was its own initiative, and that it had received "no official complaints" from the public.
He added that after it had received Eskom's response, the protector would then study the results and could then begin an official investigation.
This was only in the case that it was "not happy" with Eskom's reply, Ndiyane noted.
After an official investigation, the Public Protector would then report the findings to Parliament, along with its recommendations, he said.
Eskom was not immediately available for comment.
The power parastatal was currently involved in a R200-billion-plus programme to boost generation and transmission capacity in order to keep up with the country's growing electricity demand.
This included a new R80-billion coal-fired power station in Limpopo currently under construction.
The utility had indicated that South Africa could expect repeated load shedding until the first units of this plant come on line in 2011/12.

Perhaps it is a good idea to get email details of Eskom and the Prosecutor and start emailing complaints to as many people as possible at these places..

I just had an staff member telling me:
"Where my wife works they have many black-outs… Now the boss is sending them home during these times – unpaid."
Who will compensate these people?
Also if Eskom is not able to generate power, they should supply, at their costs, generators to companies to keep them running during the blackouts……..
Thelma BATTISS (Ms)
SOUTH AFRICA

17 January 2008
Peter
This article is a far cry from the usual "nothing sways your positive attitude towards Africa". It appears that you are confessing that we are no better than the rest of (3rd world) Africa. I am afraid many South Africans are currently thinking... "we are moving to the next Zimbabwe"
I do agree with you that the elusive "someone" must be accountable for the current disgusting power situation and by the reasoning you outlined below, you arrive at the conclusion that it must be the head of state. Plausible, yes, but who put the head of state in power? And I am sure there are many who will now stand up and claim... "I told you so". The truth is perhaps that the "people" who vote should do so with their heads and not their hearts (if this is possible) and vote for someone or some body, who CAN actually run our country and not lead us to the Robert Mugabe watering hole.
Sorry, I just had to vent my frustration at this tragic situation....
Regards
Sean O'DONNELL
Habot Marketing SA (Pty) Ltd
SOUTH AFRICA

17 January 2008
Hi Peter!
I fully agree with you.
We are experiencing the same thing in Richards Bay.
I doubt if we still have a service electricity contract either with our municipalities, ESKOM or any other organisation that would claim responsibility and accountability for what is happening.
The most serious part of these developments is that even food we buy from supermarkets might now get rotten and not remain suitable for human consumption. One shudders to imagine what might soon happen to human lives if these developments continue.
Indeed, something now needs to be done. If prayers might help, we all need to pray. The fact of the matter is that electricity load shedding disrupts students, families, industries and ordinary citizens.
Our lives depend entirely on it.
Sincerely,
Chris MKHIZE
Uthungulu Community Foundation
SOUTH AFRICA

17 January 2008
Hi Peter
Yes your comments are well made.
The Government is responsible for NOT letting the Roll out happen back in 1994 when there was a surplus - short sightedness in the extreme.
The First Nuclear solutions cannot and will not be online until 2015
The real issue is
There are a number of old power stations in Mothballs at the moment - The question is why is not frantic 24 X 7 activity at all the mothballed stations to get them online - there should be no excuse at any cost because the loss to the GDP is in excess of R 1 Billion a day if they carry on with Load Sharing.
The Western Cape has more wind that it can handle - the west coast is expanding exponentially and Not 1 Wind Turbine is to be seen - this area could be self sufficient on Wind Power alone - But Nothing is being done - these turbines can be shipped in and erected in a matter of weeks but nothing doing.
We spent all the money help build Kabora Bassa but we are not getting any of that capacity here - get the thing working even if we have to do it for Mozambique.
The real issue is Not accountability the real issue is people not willing to get there buts of their seats and star delivering instead of being tied up in bureaucratic B S and Buck passing
Adolph P KAESTNER
Professional Speaker, Motivator, Trainer and Facilitator
SOUTH AFRICA

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