Friday is a feeling | Why too much pubic discourse can be a distraction:
Eish. This is going to be a tough one. I genuinely have been trying to avoid saying anything controversial for the past seven years after my book The Way I See It trended for three days and it took Andy Murray winning the Open in 2016 for me to stop trending on social media.
I hope this column will simply slip past the Twitter police because the last time I was dragged for filth and sworn at for telling my truth, so I’m counting on the fact that there are more titillating topics than my random thoughts. But … yhu ha-a … I am tired of discourse. THAYAD!
I’ll be the first to point out how rich this is coming from me. My book was about South African discourse; I wanted to talk about the things we didn’t want to talk about publicly and, since then, boy have we been talking.
I never ever thought discourse would cause me fatigue — I like to talk and I like talking about difficult subjects — but these days, even something as mundane as food can be a subject to unpack.
There’s a video I bookmarked on Twitter where a sister was saying the same thing: “Every day, day-in and day-out, it’s a thought, it’s a hot take on a topic. I don’t want to have another thought again.”
I feel her so deeply. It’s a hilarious video but the truth is immutable — everything posted on social media is subject to scrutiny, vitriol or ridicule.
You post your child’s birthday party and people read you the riot act about good parenting, you don’t post your partner and the Twirra investigators open a case so they can find out who it is, but if they can’t, they’ll claim he’s cheating on you and that’s why you’re hiding him.
Two black men hugging each other is gay, feeding your dog Woolies meat is nouveau riche. Tell us you’re a Drake fan and we’ll call you a misogynist, claim to be a “Proverbs 31 woman” and we’ll label you an enemy of feminist progress. Issalot.
Being yourself has become so divisive I’m sure people can write a paper about why certain members of the population shouldn’t be allowed to breathe in certain areas of the country/world/universe. It has never been truer than it is now that “opinions are like arseholes, everyone has one”.
What irks me is that, these days, we have opinions about things that are none of our business. Instead of hydrating, aligning our chakras and minding our own damn business, we’re out there questioning things that should not be taking any of our mental real estate. Because, I don’t know about you, but between load-shedding, corruption, an inept government, rising interest rates and the amount of work we’re doing for very little pay, there’s a lot of our own personal and state business to mind.
This is why I find the conversation being raised by Lady Skollie, Sanell Aggenbach and Lucinda Mudge in their joint exhibition at Joburg’s Everard Read Gallery so fascinating. Sharing a title with one of my favourite jazz albums by Miles Davis, Bitches Brew explores the treacherous territory that is feminism in a time of gender-based violence in South Africa.
With artworks with titles such as Punani Escapes Fire (a real Daily Sun headline, I might add) and A Stiff Cock Has No Conscience, the exhibition is audacious, stirring and unapologetically feminist. It poses questions about us as a society and how we’re numb to violence.
Obviously, I’m not saying we all have to be artists to have an opinion but discourse should move us forward instead of making us attack each other for arbitrary things like which glass is best to use for wine. The problem with too much discourse is that too many issues all at once makes us numb to any issue, even if it’s important to discuss.
Bongeka Gumede has written an insightful piece on the growing “fast fashion” trend. Back in the day, we had to wait for the big retailers to charge us an arm and a leg for a colour-blocking ’fit. Now all you have to do is hit an Instagram boutique to get the same thing for half the price and in half the time.
Admittedly, social media boutiques have also left many down in the mouth after ordering based on a beautiful picture and receiving a dodgy, dissimilar, creased version.
Once again, this type of discourse is crucial because it’s a conversation about quality over quantity. From MaXhosa Africa to Gert-Johan Coetzee, South African designers are finding their designs being modelled by mannequins in Smal Street and this is having a negative effect on their brands and their bottom line.
Times are tough; fast and affordable fashion is satiating the urgent need for the latest trends, but in the same way you can’t subsist solely on chicken wings, ribs and slap chips, fast fashion has an adverse effect on the economy, the environment and local businesses.
Make no mistake, I’m not saying we must put an end to societal discourse — Lord knows that genie is long out of the bottle and floating somewhere in Pretoria — but we’re living in crazy times where we seem to be going backwards instead of moving forwards.
Countries like Uganda are criminalising homosexuality (side note: this is why heterosexuals keep being dragged by the queer community — we’re too concerned about other people’s sexual preferences instead of minding our own heteronormative business), abortion is illegal again in America and politicians the world over are proving to be malignant narcissists who live in a reality distortion field.
We have real problems, people. We have a world that needs our attention and solutions. Writing a think piece about Wiz Khalifa’s ugly feet is not the best use of your time.
The end.
The political mess the minister of electricity finds himself in:
Only a month into the job as electricity minister and Kgosientsho Ramokgopa is already at odds with his counterparts over his plans for Eskom.
Ramokgopa was made electricity minister last month by President Cyril Ramaphosa to deal with load-shedding, which has brought businesses and the economy of the country to their knees.
He will work with the Eskom board to improve the utility’s energy availability factor (EAF).
Ramokgopa, who is yet to receive ministerial powers, is rumoured to be taking over some of mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe’s powers.
Stripping away energy
Cabinet sources told Mail & Guardian that Ramaphosa is planning on transferring the whole energy department to Ramokgopa, who has been operating without a job description since his appointment.
If the rumours are true, this will strip Mantashe of his ability to make decisions on energy-related matters, and shrink his department to only look at mining-related issues.
Ramokgopa’s spokesperson, Nombulelo Nyathelo, said the minister is working with a skeleton staff alongside both Mantashe and minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan, under whom Eskom falls.
According to the sources in the cabinet, Mantashe received a letter from Ramaphosa to give his powers to Ramokgopa, but the letter was not well received by Mantashe who argued that his department should not be touched.
“Mantashe had no problem with Ramokgopa before this, because he was under the impression that DMRE [department of mineral resources and energy] would stay intact, taking the whole of energy out of DMRE strips the department of a large chunk of its work. All hell is bound to break loose,” the one cabinet source said.
Mantashe and Ramokgopa sing the same tune when it comes to coal and its importance to the electricity grid.
Giving coal another go
On Thursday, Ramokgopa announced that he plans to extend the life of Eskom’s power plants that were reaching their end of life by another 20 years. But this would be contingent on whether the cabinet gives him the go-ahead.
The electricity minister stressed that some difficult decisions would need to be made going into winter, as well as for the longer term. These included refurbishing the coal-fired power stations to stabilise the grid.
The fiscus had to invest in refurbishing the coal-fired power stations to improve their performance and he would advance this as his preferred option when he presented his plans to the cabinet before the end of April.
“Eskom has no money to invest in capital cost. When you accept that as a given, and say there is nothing you can do as a country, then accept that you are going to have higher levels of load-shedding, accept that the total cost to the economy continues to be exponential,” Ramokgopa said.
“Ageing power stations need investment to refurbish them to improve their performance and prolong their lifespans. This will require investment by the fiscus and/or the private sector. Renewables do not currently have enough baseload that will supply energy all day,” he said.
Cabinet sources added that there is a general discontent with Ramokgopa’s utterances which has cast doubt about South Africa’s transition of moving away from coal.
“This will have to be discussed in the next cabinet meeting because it is important that we present a unified voice, especially when dealing with international matters,” the cabinet source said.
The source added that the ANC is still dealing with “the cartel stories, now we have to explain our position to the international partner group because they don’t believe we have intentions of ever letting go of coal, let alone the carbon implications that come with that. It was a bit reckless of our comrade to utter such statements, especially before discussing it with us. It undermines comrade Cyril’s word.”
R130 billion in danger
His announcement has put him at odds with Gordhan, who has noted that his comments could jeopardise the R130 billion investment by international donors that was factored into the cabinet-approved Just Energy Transition Investment Plan (JET-IP) that envisages an investment programme of R1.5 trillion over the next five years.
Responding to questions from EFF treasurer general Mpho Maotwe in parliament on Tuesday, Gordhan contradicted Ramokgopa’s statement by saying the plan to decommission Eskom’s old plants was still on track.
“The Eskom just energy transition strategy recognises the financial prudence of investing limited capital budgets towards establishing new generating capacity from renewables, rather than investing in aged coal plants to extend their lives or to make them environmentally compliant. Many coal plants are noncompliant with national minimum emission standards requirements,” Gordhan said.
Ramokgopa said the government needs to rethink the aggressiveness of the pace at which the country is to achieve its nationally determined contributions to a net-zero level of emissions so as not to inflict harm on the economy.
Extending the ageing coal fleet is against the policy signed by Ramaphosa to replace costly coal-fired power plants with much cheaper renewable energy infrastructures. Ramokgopa plans to ask the cabinet to reconsider its position to decommission the plants and rather extend their life expectancy.
Speaking to Mail & Guardian, energy expert Mark Swilling said if the cabinet agrees with Ramokgopa’s conclusions, this would send a signal that South Africa plans on being excluded from international markets that are introducing carbon-border taxes aimed at preventing the import of goods from carbon-intensive economies.
Swilling added that Ramokgopa’s preferred option means disregarding cabinet-approved policies which has, in turn, triggered intense consternation among local and international investors who take a long-term view based on the certainties provided by solid cabinet-approved policy frameworks.
“Based only on a walkabout and unsupported by the detailed technical studies that exist, we must now believe that the machines can be fixed and made to last,” Swilling said.
He added that there is plenty of funding available for renewables at a very low cost per kilowatt hour, but coal would cost the government more money while breaking the promise to limit the country’s carbon emissions.
“There is virtually no funding available for investing in coal, especially ageing, polluting, coal-fired power plants — and if there is, it will be very costly.”
Any funding is also threatened by corruption surrounding the utility which was exposed by former Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter, who said cabinet members were planning to loot coffers of the utility using cartels in the Mpumalanga province.
The matter is yet to be discussed in parliament when De Ruyter returns to explain the corruption uncovered at the utility.
Mandisa Nyathi is a climate reporting fellow, funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.
You are failing to lead, Mbeki tells ANC top leaders:
The party’s top six leaders agreed with the former president’s letter at a meeting, saying they had not received a proper brief on Phala Phala from Cyril Ramaphosa
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