Yet again the people of South Africa have been royally stiffed by the national electricity utility company.
Eskom or, by its rightful name, EsCON saw fit to request an international loan from none other than the IMF in order to finance what will be the fourth-largest coal-fired power station in the world.
A coal-fired power station. The fourth-largest of its kind in the world. With a loan from the IMF.
The mind BOGGLES at just how many bad angles those statements conjure up...
Let me deconstruct just how bad this deal is for South Africa and the environment:
1. Climate What?: Whilst the South African government proudly trumpets its 'commitments' to global warming and climate change, it acts as ringmaster and cheerleader for this deal it brokered between its reviled parastatal, EsCON, and the IMF. Experts agree that coal-fired power stations are the number one cause of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Numero Uno. And here we are, Africa's biggest economy, pumping more money into this dirty, filthy technology. With the name of Medupi. To the tune of USD3.75-billion to be exact.
It's greenwashing all over again, typical of governments the world over.
2. Old Hag, Will Travel: Coal-fired power stations are basically updated 19th-century technology. However you dress them and modernize them, they're still filthy and decrepit hags pumping out huge amounts of air pollution and countless other environmental impacts.
3. Renewable Que? Where the hell is this country's REAL and TANGIBLE commitment to alternative energy sources like solar, wind, wave and geothermal, all of which South Africa would possess in plentiful supply? Nowhere, of course. We'd rather shackle ourselves to a 'proven' polluting and frankly filthy energy source like coal, thereby relegating us to never-has-beens in the new global green economy. Such is the power and clout of the coal industry lobby in this country (with the nuclear crowd another bunch of thugs hogging the energy debate in SA), not to mention the collusion between the government, EsCON and major industrial entities that are known to get their electricity in this country (their DIRTY electricity, please note) for below cost. A collusion unchanged since deep in the bad old apartheid era, by the way.
Oh, and a pledge to use some of this money (about R230-million or thereabouts according to the con..ahem...agreement with the IMF) for 'renewable technologies' is frankly in bad taste. It's abit like the biggest loan shark in town loaning a heroin addict $1000 for his heroin habit and telling the addict they must set $75 aside for their rehab. Uh huh. You may call that a 'concession', I call it patronizing to renewable energy.
4. Putting out the Fires: Reading the comments of ministers and EsCON in the media one was given the unmistakable message that unless this Medupi power station is built the entire electricity infrastructure of this country would collapse by next week. Or tomorrow. In fact, make that yesterday. Where the hell does planning come into all of this, you incompetent idiots? It's the oldest, most boring political trick in the book - make a situation seem so bad, so untenable, so utterly URGENT that you will make people desperately accept any old nonsense you feed them, including making us more reliant than ever on dirty, outdated technology. At the very least it's sheer incompetence and bad management. At worst it's...well...
5. Banana Republic - Proof 1: The money has always been there, the scope of South Africa's energy needs has always been known, yet everyone runs around like headless nincompoops insisting that coal energy is the ONLY thing that has ANY chance of staving off the immediate return of South Africa to the Iron Age. And all this nonsense about "how much South Africa has grown since 1994" and "what a surprise" it's been to the government and EsCON is a pile of crap. These lies must stop. Our real GDP each year has barely surpassed 3% per annum, whatever bunch of economic data the government throws at us. This is hardly the People's Republic of China or India in terms of growth...
Yes, more people have electricity these days. Yes, the SA population is growing larger. Big deal. Boo hoo. Where was all the planning? Where were all the contingency plans based on projected demographic and economic growth rates? Nowhere, because incompetent fat cats were too busy lining their pockets at EsCON whilst the government chose to do nothing and this country's coal industry looked on rubbing their dirty hands in glee.
6. Banana Republic - Proof 2: Where there's an IMF loan, you can bet your bottom dollar there will be corruption. Or, in this instance, your bottom 3.75-billion dollars. There have been widespread reports in the country's media and abroad that the governing ANC (or members thereof) will stand to make up to R1-billion (about 2.75% of the total loan amount) what with its close ties to the chief construction company involved in this project. But, of course. Why shouldn't the head honchos in the ruling party not skim the cream off the top of this lucrative deal? It is for the 'better' of the country and they are the ones 'brokering' the deal. Right? Um...no, wrong. The ANC has been in power for too long and acts as such. In fact, it acts like most governments in power.
7. Bring in Da Mafia: Number 7 is such a magic number and so I have left the best for last. Not only does this country see fit to build the fourth-largest coal-fired power station in the world but...wait for it...we will do so with money from the International Mafia Fund! Hurrah! I think the fact we have 'secured' this money from the IMF angers me almost as much as having yet another huge polluting power station in the countryside. I put the word secure in parentheses for dramatic effect, because there's no such thing as 'security' when one is dealing with the biggest legal multilateral Mafia organization in the world.
The IMF, the most destructive, anti-society, anti-liberty, anti-democracy bunch of bastards in the post-WW2 era, has finally gotten its grubby claws right into the flesh of the Rainbow Nation. Where the IMF and its economic henchmen are let in, they never leave without huge socio-political and human rights costs to the host, never mind the ENORMOUS interest on loans this particular Mafia family always make. Just ask Argentina, circa 2002.
The South African government even had the nerve to declare very proudly how South Africa has never requested a loan from the IMF in the post-apartheid era (i.e. post-1994). Great. Thanks so much. And now, in the midst of a global recession that still doesn't let up, you choose to invite the biggest wolf of all into our lair. And you're proud of that? What a bunch of cretins.
With this deal South Africa has whored itself out to two very dangerous clients: meet Dirty Coal and the International MaFiosi.
I cannot yet decide which of these two will prove more costly to this country in the years to come.
Do you get my point?
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