By Newton Masuku
The following article is published as part of the June-August 2023 issue of uManyano lwaBasebenzi.
On 9 May this year, South Africa hit the milestone of setting a new record of total loadshedding time in a year. Not even halfway through 2023, and the 2022 record of 34.56 days of loadshedding had been broken. Since the start of the year the ANC government has attempted to halt the impending disaster of rolling black outs, with Ramaphosa declaring a state of disaster in February, creating a new ministerial position for Electricity Minister, speeding up attempts to privatise the grid, and accelerating billion rand deals like that of the Karpowerships.
While the DA has opportunistically used the intensified blackouts and anger of regular people to push the national government to increase allowances for Independent Power Producers (IPPs), many organisations, including the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA) and SAFTU, have decried the government’s moves to privatise Eskom by stealth.
The government responded to its detractors by arguing that power cuts harm not only the economy but the whole of society – particularly the working class and the poor. But the ANC-led government is here engaging in sophistry and sleight of hand. Its failure to provide uninterrupted power supply to working-class communities is not a natural calamity, nor is it an unforeseen circumstance, instead, it’s a deliberate effort to eventually hand over the power utility to private capital. For instance, in 1998 the ANC government released a white paper on energy which detailed the plans to privatise Eskom. From then on, capital investment in Eskom ceased, to pave the way for capital to obtain the utility at a fraction of its worth.
The capitalist class uses its might to wrest the SOEs from public hands to maximise profits. Moreover, massive projects like power utilities, railway lines, communication systems, etc, demand massive investment in capital outlays. The machinery, raw materials and the time during which workers must be employed, makes such undertakings prohibitively costly for the capitalists. In addition to taking long to complete, such projects involve too much risk. Hence, historically they have been mostly undertaken by states or private companies with huge state backing. Once these projects are completed and have shown potential for profitability, private capital attempts to take them for itself. Eskom, for instance, was financed and built by the state to power the mining powerhouses and industry of South African Capitalism. And it has since remained in the hands of the state.
Until now capitalists have been salivating, eyeing Eskom as a potential site for profit-making. But resistance from trade unions and other working-class organisations to privatisation has made it difficult for the capitalists to access the power utility.
Recently, however, the World Bank has come to their aid. In a document entitled Creating Markets, The Bank urged the South African government to increase tariffs to make Eskom lucrative for private business – i.e., for the Independent Power Producers (IPPs). That is because the price per unit of electricity was too low for the private capital to realise a profit, and unless prices were increased to be profitable, there would be no private investment.
The guiding logic of IPPs is that of public-private partnerships in which the public, through the state, carries the risk while the capitalists reap profits.
Here the hypocrisy of the ruling class and its spokespersons is revealed. The capitalists justify their appropriation of profits by arguing that they take risks to invest in machinery and raw materials and hire workers to produce goods and services for the whole of society. If the enterprise fails, they go on to argue, only they would incur the cost – not the workers who would only lose jobs. A preposterous claim, of course, since risk creates nothing. Only workers through the application of their labour power create goods and services for the whole of society. But for all its ridiculousness let us for now grant the preposition and apply it to IPPs. That the state must carry the risks while capitalists reap profits undermines the very justification, false as it is, of the capitalist’s claims to profits. So much for risk taking!
As WASP we say:
- Reject all electricity tariff increases: the working class won’t pay for the ANC’s failures and corruption!
- Organise a programme of rolling mass action led by workers, communities and youth to fight for genuine nationalisation of SOEs under the democratic control of the working class and in the interest of all of society.
- Place Eskom under the direct democratic control and management of Recovery and Reconstruction Councils made up of their workers and communities. These councils would bring in accountable expertise as needed and develop a turnaround strategy to reorientate ESKOM to serve the interests of our communities and not ANC fat cats and multinational consulting firms.
- An end to outsourced sub-contracts, wasting billions on Karpowerships and backroom BEE deals – they are not in the interest of the black majority but benefit a few politically connected tender-preneurs and lead to the worst exploitation of workers in precarious employment
- Create at least one million quality jobs on a living wage in a real mass public works programme and rapidly train a workforce that can address the failing infrastructure of ESKOM; build and operate the factories needed to urgently produce the equipment and technology needed for rolling out more sustainable green energy such as wind, solar and small-scale hydropower, in order to end the reliance on coal, nuclear and diesel that destroys the planet and impact our health; retrofit and build new public housing to be more energy efficient; rapidly connect all people living in SA to the electric grid in order to end dangerous and exploitative “illegal” connections; transition to renewable-fuelled and safe mass public transport including expansion of long-distance passenger and freight rail.
- An end to state-subsidised electricity to energy-intensive users. Trade unions and other working class organisations must struggle for the nationalisation of the banks, mines, manufacturing industries and mega farms under democratic control of the working class. In this way, we can plan our economy for the social good, including the production and distribution of our energy resources, in the most sustainable and equitable way, including urgent measures to address the climate crisis. Only a democratic socialist system can provide a world free from exploitation and ensure that everyone enjoys a quality life.
Also check out our article published in January: Time to pull the plug on the ANC
