IRR Launches Campaign to Fight Loadshedding Meritocratically

The IRR has launched a new campaign to Fight Loadshedding by stopping BEE at Eskom. Signatures will be gathered to deliver to the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, to grant BEE exemptions in Eskom procurement.

Earlier this year the IRR pointed out that Minister Godongwana has the power to grant BEE procurement exemptions if that is "in the public interest” under section 3 of the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act. Shortly thereafter exemptions were temporarily granted to some organs of state, including Eskom.

The question that stands before South Africa today is whether it remains in the public interest to maximize value-for-money procurement at Eskom to minimize loadshedding?

The State Capture Report has described an “inevitable tension” between penny-pinching and colour-coded procurement concluding, “Ultimately…the primary national interest is best served when the government derives the maximum value-for-money in the procurement process and procurement officials should be so advised.”

Those who sign onto the IRR’s petition agree.

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter appears to be amenable to this advice since he was recently asked about the case for BEE exemptions from procurement and said that there is a “strong case” to do so since “interposing non-value-adding intermediaries” increases costs and corruption risks.

It doesn’t matter how one looks, South Africans will need to fight load-shedding together. The only way out of load-shedding is more reliable power generation at the lowest price, which is not going to happen if citizens do not insist on that emphatically.

Said Gabriel Crouse, IRR Head of Campaigns: “This country must be done with race-power, whether it is white power or black power, we just need electrical power to heat, light and cook. Power cuts hurt us all in very practical ways, the solution must likewise focus on what really matters, merit not melanin.”

https://irr.org.za/campaigns/fight-loadshedding-stop-eskom-bee
 

* Afrikaans-language media are requested to retain the acronym ‘IRR’, rather than using ‘IRV’.

Media contacts: Gabriel Crouse, IRR Head of Campaigns – 082 510 0360; gabriel@irr.org.za
Mlondi Mdluli, IRR Campaign Manager – 071 148 2971; mlondi@irr.org.za
 
Media enquiries: Michael Morris Tel: 066 302 1968 Email: michael@irr.org.za