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I write this article as a follow up to “Eskom, the fall of a first world utility” 9 March 2015. In the first article I wanted to take a look at the real change in Eskom, when it happened and the hidden problems before they were known. In my 2 decades in Eskom I saw the transformation in the company from the release of Nelson Mandela to his Inauguration as the President of South Africa in 1994.
Since I was recruited in 1992 I could see the massive mind set change in the organisation that immediately followed 1990. The transformation was immediate and driven from the top. I considered myself lucky to get a job at the time as a young white South African. I was told this over and over. You were almost made to feel guilty for the fact that you do have a job. I was quickly taught that you need to make yourself indispensable.
Most white managers at the time made a pact that none of them would ever discipline a non-white worker, never mind fire them, as none of them want the race card to be thrown at them. The age of white fear in the workplace had arrived. This was openly discussed and debated on a regular basis. Eskom became the spearhead of AA and we had to play the game to survive. This fear situation had a few results.
Many white workers were tardy or refused to train non-white workers. Often this was done on a go slow basis till the trainee lost interest.
Many non-white workers would take promotions before they were ready or had the experience required for the job. The higher you moved up the ranks the better you were treated especially when inexperienced.
Some non-white workers became almost untouchable and they knew it. They also enjoyed taking advantage of it with sick leave, late arrivals and job performance.
Some really good non-white workers stood out and were used well for their good skills. That often meant they had to wait longer for promotions as they were needed as experts in their jobs. The joke was often that if you wanted a promotion you needed to perform below par. This seemed to ring true to a great extent.
This new situation of racial cat and mouse was never good for Eskom as the forerunner of transformation. No one knew exactly where this would lead. There was a lot of speculation and people could never call a spade a spade as certain concepts or ideas were not allowed in the public forum. We all knew what everyone was thinking without it being said. The degradation really started when the top experts in Eskom started leaving not only the company but the country. This left those that felt they did not have the ability to leave but would if they could, behind.
The remaining staff became demotivated and this soon spilled over to all staff. You cannot have a healthy working environment without solid teamwork. Now the wheels in Eskom have come off the all staff feel threatened and disillusioned.
How can South Africa fix this problem of a broken Eskom? The answer is simple. Speak to the people doing the work on the ground at the power stations and at distribution and give them a voice. Let them speak to an independent body. They will tell you how to fix Eskom. They are keeping it alive. At night when most of the staff at a power station is asleep, there is a group of essential staff that keep the station going. They know exactly what is required to keep the power station running. They are being managed often by inexperienced plant managers that rose to higher levels under questionable circumstances. Find out when last Koeberg has had a power station manager that actually held a license to run a nuclear reactor, when this used to be the norm throughout the Western World. The standards have dropped and we have accepted them.
As long as managers that have not worked on the ground give feedback up the ladder with many filters in place, the CEO will never hear the truth. Eskom has a board that is fed info from managers too scared to report bad figures. I saw this on a daily basis. When good figures are demanded by the board, the management will drive good figures, not what is required to achieve good figures. Eskom needs to go back to basics. The structure in Eskom is fine and has a proven track record. The people in the structure are flawed and have driven agendas that are flawed. Eskom have to give the workers on the ground what they need to do their work effectively. The CEO needs to do what the CEO’s of old did. Go to the plants. Speak to line management. Speak to the line Supervisors, and mostly speak to the people on the ground.
Eskom will never solve their problem from an office at Megawatt Park. It is time the sleeves get rolled up and the forgotten standard blue issue overalls to come out of the cupboard. The day the apprentice is respected again is the day Eskom will start to shine as it used to before the turn of the century. If the board is not ready to get dirty I hope we find IPP’s fast that are willing to run their power stations from the bottom up.
