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POPSBrits suffer from metal theft For a long time South Africans have suffered from metal theives. A few months ago we were without electricity for two days, not because of Eskom load shedding, but because of cable theft. Twenty years ago the aluminium railings were nicked from a railway bridge down the road, over four separate nights, and no one heard a thing. Cell phones have mitigated the inconvenience of telephone cable theft, but it can still disrupt Internet access. And many have been late for work because of the theft of railway signal cables. Now, it seems, the Brits are suffering from the same problem. Will it rile up even the phlegmatic Brits so much that they'll start burning railway carriages and stations when the trains are late?
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POPSSouth Africans pay more for electricity As shortages of things like electricity, oil and even food grow, so will conflicts of interest. Ideally, southern Africa should try to produce its own electricity for the whole subcontinent. As supplies of coal and other fossil fuels dwindle, there will be increasing reliance on hydroelectricity from the Zambezi and the Congo -- but countries along those rivers will want to serve themselves first, and sell the surplus to others -- while there is a surplus. So which rout to go -- cooperation in the subcontinent, or autarky?
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POPSStorm in an aluminium smelter Valli Moosa, the chairman of the Eskom board, and former Minister of Environmental Affairs, said at a meeting last night that South Africa would not have a power crisis if there were no big aluminium smelters, but said that this as a sensitive matter, as the row between Standard Bank and BHP Billiton shows.
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POPSSchadenfreude? For the last three months South Africans have been complaining about Eskom's failures in planning and bad management, as if it is the only organisation to suffer from such incompetence, and as if South Africa is the only country to suffer from such misfortunes. So perhaps there was a certain sense of relief, not to mention malicious glee, to see that British Airways seems to be unable to organise a piss up in a brewery. And there was the gent of Sky News muttering at 20 minute intervals about the damage it was doing to "brand UK". At least we're not alone.
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POPSElectricity not being exported, says Eskom Eskom says that electricity is not being exported to neighbouring countries when there is no surplus. But isn't it a bit late for President Thabo Mbeki to be meeting with Eskom management to ascertain the extent of the problem? According to Cosatu, it was President Thabo Mbeki himself who opposed Eskom's plans to expand its generating capacity.
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POPSANC's Thatcherism responsible for Eskom load shedding -- Cosatu Cosatu has drawn attention to one aspect of the electricity supply crisis that hasn't received much attention in the media. Cosatu does not blame Eskom management, but the government's mania for privatisation. And if that is true, then the heads have already rolled -- at the ANC conference in December. And then it is just a question whether wiser heads replace them.
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