16/06/2023
Planning and Power
THE BRITISH STATESMAN and wartime prime minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, is credited with saying: “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.”
The song titled ‘Power to the People’ was written by the British music legend John Lennon and released as a single record in 1971.
Lennon was a founding member of the iconic pop group The Beatles.
This week’s column underscores the importance of planning and highlights the consequence of failing to do so.
It’s also about giving power to the people.
In an upbeat mood, following the attendance at three amazing events in Cape Town, which I shall write about in future columns, I was brought back to earth last Saturday by experiencing the devastating consequence of a malfunctioning generator at South Africa’s Vioolsdrift border post.
There we were, scores of holiday makers, truckers and returning residents seated in vehicles in an ever-growing queue in front of closed gates at an international border crossing.
For years now power has been rather elusive for the folk from all walks of life in neighbouring South Africa.
Not political power - as that was attained by the people when that country transitioned to democracy just short of three decades ago in 1994 - but power of the electrical type.
Seemingly the problem just won’t go away, as since 2007, Eskom, the national power utility of Africa’s most industrialised nation, is unable to satisfy the country’s energy needs.
As a result, South Africa’s people now routinely face load shedding, the ‘nice’ term for electricity blackouts, which they now experience for up to eight hours a day.
The grim situation does not merely persist, but is getting worse, with cuts of up to 16 hours a day predicted for the coming winter months.
Higher income earners have the financial wherewithal to make alternate arrangements, such as buying a generator or installing a solar power system, but this is not an option for most households.
Business is suffering too.
Large firms say profit is being eroded by the cost of alternate sources of energy.
One supermarket chain claims that diesel for generators cost the firm just short of R600 million over the past financial year.
Somebody is paying for this – either consumers faced with higher prices or shareholders in the form of lower dividend payments against their investments.
Running a household without electricity over an extended period every day must be challenging, but spare a thought for small enterprises. Undoubtedly for many, the only option is closure with resultant loss of income and jobs.
The returning travelers exiting South Africa for Namibia and beyond and I saw first-hand the devastating knock-on effect that electricity blackouts in one country has on the economy of another one in the form of people and product movement disruption.
It seems that planning, or rather the lack thereof, coupled with other factors such as ineptness and corruption, is the cause of the country’s power outage problem.
Way back in 1998 knowledgeable people warned the South African government that Eskom would fail to meet the nation’s power needs by 2007 and proffered suggestions on remedial measures, but no action was taken.
As Churchill warned decades ago, by failing to plan you are indeed planning to fail.
