Repair (Heal) Your World

My latest letter to the Cape Times editor. Melanie Gosling's articles this week and NERSA today (24th February 2010) approving 25% increases (95% over 3 years) refer. My company has a number of clients who wish to provide their own energy. We don't believe that we can rely on Eskom energy. It isn't sustainable. It isn't clean. Not only is coal polluting the air, mining it is polluting our water resources and destroying our roads. If we weren't in a recession Eskom energy wouldn't be enough for our requirements, so there is no true security of supply, especially as Eskom has not got the increase they wanted. Lastly, in the medium to long term, Eskom's energy is not affordable for our clients and there are already affordable alternatives. However, most of the clients we consult to are too small to fit into the 1 Megawatt bracket which gets the feed in tariff (REFIT). And the REFIT itself is a farce because the government has implemented a tender system w...

Me reading the Declaring a State of Emergency LinkedIn post, with a few verbal additions and a special ending

I attended the urgently called Cape Town Press Club Breakfast with Ms Nomvula Mokonyane, the Minister of Water and Sanitation, on a Sunday morning. I think this was the first time that the Press Club Hosted a lecture on a Sunday. One should note that Nomvula means "Mother of Rain". And Nomvula believes that the rain will save us. She is almost exactly one year older than me, and she has a Certificate in Emerging Economics from Wharton Business School and a Certificate of Local Government & Provincial Law from Sweden. She came into the ANC via the Communist Party and her speech and answers to questions raised from the audience reflected her training. Considering that she was the Premier of Gauteng, she should have known exactly what Premier Zille should be doing, but she had no advice for our Premier whatsoever. I sat with Premier Helen Zille and had the honour to meet a young lady from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation, who is here for 2 months researchin...

People should be cross with themselves for allowing this situation to get to where it is, when the likes of myself, Anthony Turton, GrahamTek and many other Active Citizens have been warning of this impending disaster for decades. And please, this is not the worst drought ever. It is the worst drought in 33 years. It is the worst water management crisis ever, and THE FIRST WATER MANAGEMENT CRISIS WAS IN 1800. Sorry about the SHOUTING / Emphasis. South Africans and their Government have known that Cape Town is a Water Scarce region for Millenia. Hence why the Bushman learnt how to live in the desert. And in 1800, "modern civilisation" learnt that the Tavern of the Seas with its Abundant Hoerikwaggo water, was actually "water scarce". The problem: People are apathetic. They plan for retirement in 30 years time, but they don't plan to be alive next week. Most people are "free-riders". eg in Milnerton, about half of reside...