Corruption in South Africa is nothing new and has been around for as long as I can remember it is just that it keeps sinking to new lows. You will find reasons if you dig deep enough why South Africa still experiences load shedding 16 years after it was first introduced. 16 years is a very long time for a problem never to be resolved and the only logical answer is those that are in power don't want it fixed.
Eskom the State Owned Enterprise that provides the coal power for the country also provides so many lucrative corrupt schemes those benefitting will never allow the full recovery of the grid. Only when there is a change in government with people who care will we see how this has all been engineered and planned.
We know about the coal syndicates who have been swapping out high quality coal for low quality coal causing maintenance issues, but this is the pocket change and not where the big theft is happening. The theft is happening when the back up diesel generators are running keeping the grid operational.
During the first 3 months of 2022 Eskom spent R1.3 billion purchasing diesel and in the first month of the new financial year for 2023/24 Eskom spent R3 billion. You would think this is a State run enterprise so Eskom is controlling the importing of diesel having their own import license, but that is sadly nowhere near the truth.
We have to wind back to see firstly why diesel is being imported and why a company originally called Mossgas and then became another SOE PetroSA cannot supply the country's needs. The gas fields off shore are basically dry and the flame burning at the refinery is only highlighting how little pressure is coming through.
The only action happening at the PetroSA refinery these days is the off loading of diesel by tankers queueing up to off load. They have to queue due to the storage tanks not all being in use due to years of decay and no maintenance which shows you they can't even get this resolved.
Tankers have been known to wait up to 3 weeks to distribute their cargo with each day costing $400K in demurrage fees. These are the costs being forwarded on to Eskom's account which are then forwarded on to the publics electricity bills.
Eskom has applied for their own import licenses but have been denied by the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. There are a number of top secret importers who have licenses and the Minister will not revel who those people/companies are.
The way the fuel is imported is via these top secret license holders who do not have to pay for the fuel themselves as Eskom have to pay upfront. Eskom then has to pay retail prices for the fuel it burns to keep the lights on giving those with the licenses an easy profit for doing absolutely nothing. This is where the theft is taking place and not the coal being swapped over as that is the plan to keep the power stations off line through maintenance repairs.
What is rather obvious is that the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources along with other ministers are importing the fuel themselves and why it is top secret. PetroSA is about to undergo an overhaul with tenders in place to upgrade the infrastructure in order to be able to store more diesel in the reserve tanks. This is like the perfect crime that is taking place with the more power systems off line the more these "top secret" importers are making without having to finance the deals themselves.
PetroSA will become an independent company once the upgrades are completed and the new Chief Executive in charge will be no other than the Mister of Energy and Natural Resources. This is so lucrative they cannot afford to hand over the reigns to just anyone and the sooner this lot are voted out the better the country will be.
Other natural gas fields have been found off the cost in deeper water, but that will just be used for smoke and mirrors for now with no real urgency. They are setting up a company where all the crooks will be able to feed each other as long as the current Governing party can stay in power.
The idea of having green energy does not work as you cannot steal from the wind or the sun and why the Minister of Energy is so against this idea. You would think he would want to fix the problem as this is his portfolio and the longer it remains a problem the more he and his fellow comrades make.
