Politics.za: Die Ou Vrou Gevaar!

Die Ou Vrou Gevaar!

Farrel — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 08:58:00 -0600

It seems Minister of Public Enterprise Alec Erwin (who is in charge of all parastatals like our beloved Eskom) is not going to rule out the possibility of intentional sabotage in the continued rolling blackouts that are affecting the Western Cape. Now the more cynical of you reading this blog might take this with a kilogram or two of salt, after all there is an election tomorrow and the ANC in the Western Cape is competing in it’s closest race (Cape Town) in the region. No doubt Alec would love to plant that tired old canard of ‘Well… who would really benefit from blackouts? Certainly not the ANC!’ in voters heads.

When it comes to looking at a situation I tend to follow a few simple rules, and one of the most prominent is ‘never attribute to malice that which can be attributed to stupidity’. Where Alec Erwin sees Hellen Zille in ninja garb rapelling down the side of Koeberg’s reactor housing and snapping the necks of innocent security guards, I see growth in the economy without any growth in the infrastructure to support that growing economy (are you listening Telkom, because I have a feeling this applies to you as well) and the shortsightedness (whether because of greed, laziness or just ignorace) that has not put any long term solutions in place.

But the fact remains, and people should not forget this, is that even if there is some sabotage (and I seriously doubt this) then the administration at Koeberg are still negligent in allowing it to happen. Stupidity or malice… it’s still the fault of Eskom and the government departments who oversee it.

"Die Ou Vrou Gevaar!" by Farrel

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 11:49:37 -0600

Hey I might not agree with all the lyrical content but the music is still rocking. Would it make you feel better if I said I am a big fan of Rush?

"Die Ou Vrou Gevaar!" by Wayne

Wed, 01 Mar 2006 03:44:40 -0600

Rage Against The Machine? My goodness Farrel, how can you sink so low?

More seriously on the topic at hand. It’s still inexcusable even if it is true. Why is there no spare capacity? Why was no contingency plan ever made? Why was the infrastructure not upgraded when Eskom is running up north to the DRC to help with power plants there? Why are we still pipping electricity to Zimbabwe when it is needed more urgently here? Is Bob really worth that much (several billion Rands) to Mbeki?

These are the questions that need to be answered and it seems the idea of Eskom and the government is to distract from those questions and then dodge the issue entirely.

"Die Ou Vrou Gevaar!" by Farrel

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 16:08:23 -0600

I seriously hope no one in the media is taking that email seriously.

It’s probably some teenager whose listened to just a tad too much Rage Against The Machine (says I while playing my CD of Evil Empire).

"Die Ou Vrou Gevaar!" by James Clark

Tue, 28 Feb 2006 14:34:37 -0600

Apparently someone has emailed 702 Radio a confession relating to the sabotage…

http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/default/display_article.asp?Nav=ns&ArticleID=1518-25_1889982

I don’t know about you, but that email seriously sounds like something the ANC was saving for when they were supposed to sabotage Koeberg about twenty years ago…