News STEVEN BOYKEY SIDLEY: Eskom and the unseen spider web Let’s dispense with the whole ‘sabotage/dirty tricks’ narrative. This is a Trumpian deflection BL PREMIUM

As I sit here in darkness again, trapped in the purgatory between outrage and resignation, an emergent fact about Eskom becomes evident. It is less that some odious mixture of incompetence and corruption has brought us back to this point; it is a growing realisation that Eskom’s tottering walls cannot be fixed, at a least not for the next 10 years or more. Not even if an endless supply of cheap capital suddenly appeared, and not even if the entire cadre (a word I use with intent) of incompetents and crooks still holing up in plush offices were magically and instantly replaced by the best of the best. First, let’s dispense with the whole “sabotage/dirty tricks” narrative. This is a Trumpian deflection by those who wish the spotlight pulled off Eskom and their current ANC masters. It is simple. Just say it — “power stations are being sabotaged.” Presumably by Machiavellian forces of darkness seeking to embarrass and ruin a sitting government. The Zuma faction or the EFF or white minor...