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CAUTIONARY COLLAPSE

By: Darlene Creamer 31st August 2018 For years now, South African engineers have been warning of mounting infrastructure maintenance backlogs. However, it remains far from clear as to whether the country has any long-term strategy for managing its critical infrastructure? Following the horrific collapse of the motorway bridge in... →

SHIFTING DECKCHAIRS

By: Darlene Creamer 24th August 2018 Recent power-cut-prone wage negotiations at Eskom were akin to watching the deckchairs being moved on the Titanic before the liner hit its fatal iceberg. It is now broadly accepted that the business is not sustainable in its current form. Yet the negotiations had all the hallmarks of ‘business as... →

UNHAPPY SEQUEL

By: Darlene Creamer 17th August 2018 Expectations ahead of Zimbabwe’s July 30 election were somewhat elevated by the absence of Robert Mugabe from the ballot. However, events soon took on a very familiar, and unhappy, tone, with strong indications of vote rigging and with protests being violently supressed. Nevertheless, the... →

OPEN VERSUS CLOSED

By: Darlene Creamer 10th August 2018 A high degree of cynicism arose following the announcement of new Chinese investments into South Africa worth some $14.7-billion. However, the investment forms only part of a broader charm offensive by China, which senses an opportunity to exploit the gap being created by the isolationist... →

HARD TIMES

By: Darlene Creamer 3rd August 2018 South Africa’s construction industry has come under intense pressure in recent years. The industry’s reputation suffered severely in the wake of the collusion cases. However, a potentially fatal blow has come in the form of a collapse in demand, precipitated by the politically induced slowdown of... →

SHANK SHOTS

By: Darlene Creamer 27th July 2018 During an interview at the Trump Turnberry golf course, in Scotland, US President Donald Trump described the European Union (EU) as a “foe”. The comment promoted European council president Donald Tusk to Tweet: “America and the EU are best friends. Whoever says we are foes is spreading fake... →

HEAVEN SENT

By: Darlene Creamer 20th July 2018 Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu, whose centenaries we celebrate this month and year, could signal to us how best to tackle some of the big issues of our time. In the absence of any heaven-sent Tweets, it is surely up to all South Africans, especially our political... →

PRICE HEIST

By: Darlene Creamer 13th July 2018 Temperatures are rising again around the upward trajectory of fuel prices in South Africa. The taxes and levies embedded into the prices have emerged as the main source of irritation. However, in light of South Africa’s revenue-collection problems, there is arguably no realistic chance of these... →

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE . . .

By: Darlene Creamer 6th July 2018 US President Donald Trump did the unthinkable last month by imposing trade restrictions on his closest allies on the basis that their exports posed a threat to America’s national security. The move triggered retaliatory action, along with outrage. In the meanwhile, the main target of Trump’s... →

WRONG TARGET

By: Darlene Creamer 29th June 2018 Without question, Eskom’s new management severely misread the labour relations situation at the utility. As a result, they definitely provided the triggering for the aggressive industrial action that followed. Ironically, though, the workers targeted the wrong people – individuals who are... →

RECAPTURING RUNAWAYS

By: Darlene Creamer 22nd June 2018 Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has made it his mission to ‘recapture’ those State-owned companies that were, by all accounts, left to run amuck during the so-called ‘State capture’ era. Given the financial mess many of these companies are in, it’s far from certain whether government... →

SOLAR BLOOM

By: Darlene Creamer 15th June 2018 Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology was once again the star renewable-energy performer in 2017. Newly installed capacity increased by about 33%, or around 98 GW, over the record-setting additions of 2016. The ‘Renewables 2018 Global Status Report’, published last week by REN21, estimates that more... →

NEW SCIENCE DAWN

By: Darlene Creamer 8th June 2018 The recent official launch of the MeerLICHT telescope is arguably an ideal scientific accompaniment to South Africa’s political ‘New Dawn’. Likewise, the Sutherland-based instrument is the perfect optical accompaniment to the MeerKAT radio telescope. In other words, it will be the ‘eyes’ to the... →

FROM NEW DAWN TO . . .

By: Darlene Creamer 1st June 2018 President Cyril Ramaphosa’s workload during his first three-an-a-bit months in office has been heavy to say the least. Even before taking over as President, he needed to intervene urgently to prevent Eskom from running out of cash. The fire fighting has continued unabated since his February 15... →

BACK ON TRACK

By: Darlene Creamer 25th May 2018 Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has acted decisively against the board at Transnet; a State-owned company that he claims was repurposed to enable corruption and rent seeking. Gordhan says the new interim board, which will be led by Popo Molefe, has been directed to act on the findings... →

JUGGLING ACT

By: Darlene Creamer 18th May 2018 There is simply so much for President Cyril Ramaphosa to deal with at the moment that it’s little wonder he momentarily lost his cool in Parliament amid incessant heckling from the Democratic Alliance’s John Steenhuisen. For the sake of the country, however, we all need Ramaphosa at his composed... →

DEPLETION WARNING

By: Darlene Creamer 11th May 2018 New regulations coming into force at the end of May state that data users must be informed when their data is nearing depletion and cannot be defaulted onto out-of-bundle data charges once their data is depleted. However, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa stopped short of... →

ROCK & A HARD PLACE

By: Darlene Creamer 4th May 2018 As would have been expected, opposition to Eskom’s application to recoup some R66.6-billion in foregone costs and revenue for three years of the third multiyear price determination period has been fierce. For Eskom, recovering the costs is seen as business critical. However, so is keeping its... →

WARNING LIGHTS

By: Darlene Creamer 27th April 2018 Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene has revealed that government is monitoring South Africa’s State-owned companies on the basis of a dashboard that shows red, amber and green lights. While he did not disclose which entities are flashing red, it’s fairly safe to say that Eskom, South African Airways,... →

NEW ENERGY

By: Darlene Creamer 20th April 2018 Much credit must go to Energy Minister Jeff Radebe and Independent Power Producer Office head Karen Breytenbach for ensuring that the agreements for 27 long-delayed renewable-energy projects were eventually signed earlier this month. They pushed ahead despite fresh sniping from those who believe,... →

DISMAL OUTLOOK

By: Darlene Creamer 13th April 2018 South African Airways (SAA) has confirmed that it is now only likely to break even in its 2021 financial year, having reported a loss of R5.6-billion for 2017, and with a similar loss on the way for 2018. SAA is burning through cash despite the announcement of yet another turnaround strategy.... →

DANGEROUS & DAMAGING

By: Darlene Creamer 6th April 2018 When the dust eventually settles on Donald Trump’s Presidency, Americans, and the rest of the world, will be left to survey the damage. Prospects for multilateralism and international cooperation will have been seriously weakened. Together with his bellicose rhetoric on North Korea and Iran,... →

LEAKING FUNDS

By: Darlene Creamer 30th March 2018 The financial collapse of the Department of Water and Sanitation, together with reports of operational dysfunction, is almost as worrying as the state of the country’s water security in certain provinces. Fortunately, Parliament appears determined to get to the bottom of the problems with a joint... →

FIRED IN ANGER

By: Darlene Creamer 23rd March 2018 In the face of stiff opposition and strong arguments again, US President Donald Trump has pushed ahead with new trade protection measures for steel and aluminium. He has even gone so far as describing trade wars as good. The evidence, however, points to the fact than many countries, including the... →

ALARM BELLS

By: Darlene Creamer 16th March 2018 Warning lights should be flashing across South Africa in light of recent comments made by Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) commander in chief Julius Malema. Given Malema’s partiality for the outrageous, many are simply dismissing the “cutting the throat of whiteness” rhetoric as mere political... →

ART OF THE POSSIBLE

By: Darlene Creamer 9th March 2018 There are mixed feelings across society about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet appointments. His economic ‘dream team’ has been tainted by some nightmarish compromises. The appointments serve to highlight that politics is, and most probably always will be, nothing more than the art of the... →

WANNA TURN IT AROUND

By: Darlene Creamer 2nd March 2018 It certainly won’t last forever, but there is definitely a new mood of cooperation and optimism in the air since Cyril Ramaphosa because the fifth president of South Africa’s democratic era. His decision to align his nascent presidency with that of the country’s greatest statesman, Nelson... →

NAIL THE LANDING

By: Darlene Creamer 23rd February 2018 The first part of the Olympian task needed to restore South Africa’s position as a high-potential investment destination is complete. It took time, but the toxic Jacob Zuma presidency has ended. The focus has to shift now to placing the country on to a growth path that is robust enough to begin... →

BRIDGE TO FAR

By: Darlene Creamer 16th February 2018 Many South Africans expressed resigned exasperation at the announcement that the Public Investment Corporation would extend a R5-billion short-term loan as part of a larger R20-billion in emergency funding required to take the cash-strapped utility to its year-end. Sadly, this is but the end of... →

PULLING TOGETHER

By: Darlene Creamer 9th February 2018 If only the real and digital ink spilled over who is to blame for Cape Town’s water crisis was rain, because then Cape Town’s impending ‘Day Zero’ apocalypse would surely be averted. What’s required now, however, is not scapegoating or recriminations. Instead, citizens of the Mother City are in... →

CLEAN HOUSE

By: Darlene Creamer 2nd February 2018 The nation breathed a collective sigh of relief on Saturday January 20 when a new board, lead by Jabu Mabuza, was appointed at cash-strapped power utility Eskom. Expectations are high that the board, together with acting CEO Phakamani Hadebe, will do what is necessary to clean house. It is... →

WATER WORRIES

By: Darlene Creamer 26th January 2018 The terrifying alert to Hawaii residents warning them about an inbound ballistic missile was, thankfully, a false alarm. However, the warning about ‘day zero’ in Cape Town is all too real. While there is unsurprisingly much unhappiness about a proposed drought levy to delink city revenues from... →

COMING WAVE

By: Darlene Creamer 19th January 2018 South Africans breathed a collective sigh of relief last month when the National Energy Regulator of South Africa limited Eskom’s 2018/19 tariff increase to 5.23% – the utility was seeking 19.9%. However, given the electricity producer’s perilous financial state (and the likely resistance of... →

HAD A GREAT FALL

By: Darlene Creamer 15th December 2017 The reputations of the South African government and the governing African National Congress took serious knocks during 2017. Allegations, and hard evidence, of State capture flowed stronger than the Orange river in flood, while the national mood was further depressed by downgrades, job losses,... →

SMOKING GUN

By: Darlene Creamer 8th December 2017 Against all odds, the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises has done a remarkable job in peeling back the layers of State Capture at the country’s power utility. However, former Eskom chairperson Zola Tsotsi arguably provided the ‘smoking gun’, with testimony linking President Jacob Zuma... →

BIG DECISION

By: Darlene Creamer 1st December 2017 The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is hoping to make its determination on Eskom’s revenue application for 2018/19 on December 7. It’s a big decision not only in light of Eskom’s liquidity problems, but also given the potential negative economic employment impacts of a further... →

WRECKING CONTINUES

By: Darlene Creamer 24th November 2017 President Jacob Zuma’s move to foist an unworkable, and unfunded, higher education funding plan on the National Treasury is yet one more sign that he is willing to drive a bus through any institution standing in the way of his toxic political project, which combines power with patronage and... →

WORRYING DISCONNECT

By: Darlene Creamer 17th November 2017 Those closest to, and most affect by, the problems being experienced in the electricity supply industry are currently wringing their hands over the weak sales performance and what it could mean for tariffs. However, President Jacob Zuma and his newly appointed Energy Minister, David Maholobo, are... →

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