Gayton McKenzie shares 7 steps to fix blackouts

Leader of the Patriotic Alliance Gayton McKenzie has made himself available for the CEO position at Eskom.

GAYTON MCKENZIE HAS A PLAN FOR ESKOM

This follows the resignation of Andre de Ruyter as the CEO of the power utility last week.
McKenzie has proposed a number of steps to rescue Eskom from total blackout.

“None amongst us can correctly fathom what will happen if the lights go out for 7 days non stop, the best word that comes close to that is Armageddon
Recovering from a total blackout will take years to fix, we can fix things now before we get here, loadshedding has been with us more than a decade, we truly cannot listen to the current leadership telling us that they will fix it, nowhere have I read a clear plan as to how they will get us out of loadshedding, if there is not even a plan, how can we trust.”

McKenzie

SEVEN STEPS TO RESCUE SA

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McKenzie: “I have put my name up as a possible CEO, the chances of that happening is basically zero because of my political affiliation but this is my 7 steps I would suggest to fix Eskom:

1) State of Disaster

The first step towards solving a problem is to actually understand what the problem is. The correct diagnosis is what can lead to a cure. We have been hyperfocused for too long on Eskom being the problem in South Africa, when Eskom is not our problem. Our problem is that we don’t have enough electricity in South Africa. The failings at Eskom are seen as the primary reason for why we don’t have enough electricity, when really Eskom is just a part of the problem.
The idea that if we can somehow fix Eskom, then we will fix the electricity problem in South Africa is something that we unfortunately need to abandon as an old-fashioned idea whose time has come and gone.
We are in desperate times. A society constrained by endless future years of lack of cheap, available electricity is a society doomed to never grow. We will go backwards.
With enough power, we will be able to lift this country out of poverty. There will be industries, and with industries will come jobs. Our per-capita income will increase and we will finally start to have options again as a society.
What countries in the developed world are forcing down our throats though, is an unacceptable form of energy imperialism. They benefited from centuries of growth, industrialisation and development on the back of cheap, abundant fossil fuel energy, and now they think they can tell countries that need to catch up with them on the development trajectory that they can’t benefit from the same. We must accept something that is nothing short of bullying when we are told that even though we have one of the world’s largest shale gas deposits in the Karoo that we should not think about extracting and burning that natural gas because we would be contributing to the warming of the planet.
As human beings who have long had to work out how to survive on a hostile planet, remaining poor and underdeveloped has never been an answer to any of the problems we face. South Africa needs to become modern, rich and free, and our gas and coal bounty remains part of how we will get there for ourselves.
Over the past 15 years, more people globally have been taken out of absolute poverty than at any time in human history. People don’t talk about this. It’s a suppressed fact because certain interests need to push the agenda that poverty and inequality today are worse than ever.
But they are not. The reason why they are not is because countries like China and India have used fossil fuels aggressively to boost economic growth in their countries. Richer people care more about the environment. They end up living stable lives. The sooner we can end poverty everywhere, the sooner we can reach a point where everyone is in a position to live on this planet sustainably.
South Africa produces just a little more than 1% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. We are being made to feel like the polecat of the world again for burning coal, but a South Africa that can get back to producing abundant energy will be a key part of lifting all of Africa out of extreme poverty. We need to not only make ourselves independent and wealthy through energy, but share this bounty with the rest of the continent.
It can be done, but it will take brave choices and real leadership, and the willingness to stare down the superiority mindset of the West, who will never allow us to have for ourselves what they have always taken for granted as their own birthright.
It is time for us to declare the energy crisis a state of disaster so that all the resources of our state can be focused on solving this issue once and for all.
It’s time to go to total war against load shedding and this slow throttling to death of our country.

2) White engineers were booted out

We should call all the mostly white engineers who were booted out of Eskom back to work, pride, ego and racism would not switch on the lights, the one fact that none amongst us can debate is that the Whites who were given severance packages are sitting with a lot of information, they have constructed most of what is broken today, we should entice them out of retirement with good packages.

LABOUR, WAR TO FIX POWER CUTS

3) All Labour and Supply Chain Management

Each and every senior manager should reapply for his or her job, eskom is carrying a lot of deadwood that was planted there because of political affiliation, they only contribution is to fatten their bank accounts, we should also have a lifestyle audit on each and every person in Supply Chain and Senior Management, many will resign before the process but we should still continue and follow it up with criminal charges where criminality can be proven.

4) Declaration of War

A serious task team consisting of all law enforcement including tax authorities should descend on Eskom to defeat the different mafia formations who are entrenched in the business of Eskom, this war should be lead by the CEO mostly to give honest Eskom workers the guts and assurances to come forward and blow the whistle on the rot that has been happening at Eskom. Eskom should not only have a hotline to report corruption but we should have a huge financial reward system for anyone coming forward with information regarding criminal conduct past and present at Eskom. We should use all at our disposal to clean Eskom from this deeply ingrained rot of corruption.

5) Energy Mix

We have an access to the following to secure reliable energy for the people of South Africa, this is great but the problem we are facing is the PR war amongst the below-mentioned solutions

1. Coal
2. Gas
3. Nuclear
4. Renewables
5. Hydrogen

All above are necessary and much needed to solve our crisis, some will bring relief sooner, some will take longer, some will be expensive others less expensive, super powers in the world use all of this maximally at the appropriate times and budgetary allowance.

6) Eskom Board

Each and every person who will sit on the board should not only be capable but should serve a targeted purpose in solving our energy crisis, we cannot just have people on the board that obtained degrees in their respective fields, we need the smartest people on the Eskom Board, we have many smart people in SA and abroad. We should take smart people with a track record of building great companies and turning around struggling companies. We cannot afford to get this wrong. The board should report straight to the President of the country.

7) Political will and brave decision making

Immediately stop selling energy to other African countries, no country in the world supply energy to other countries whilst own citizens are sitting in darkness, countries sell surplus energy not only energy. Country duty comes first always.

Immediately stop exporting our best coal whilst we remain with low quality coal, supppy of energy before super profits.

Stop all evergreen contracts, start from scratch and do deals that make commercial sense and not political sense.

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Lastly, McKenzie says if we leave our people in darkness, flames of anger will soon rise in South Africa.