I'm a retired Professional Civil Engineer. The same as in the Electrical Engineering environment, happened in the Civil Engineering environment with water, sanitation, and roads. It was undoubtedly the master plan of the Tripartite Alliance of the African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the South African Communist Party (SACP) to destroy before SA it could be rebuilt that ran out of control. It started with TM’s term of office with the introduction of the cadres, supported by the communist party from labour level at the bottom and communists in parliament that drove legislation and regulation from the top that made it impossible to provide services and wealth to the SA community.
Jip, they decided that before 1994. To destroy every institution, enrich themselfs, because the wealth of the county was build on their backs. The only thing left is the pension fund,and they started recently, watch and see.
What is the difference between an Ass and a Donkey? Well let's see. An Ass is a Trade Unionist, and a Donkey is a Politician...I don't think one tell the difference....😊😅😂....
How can Eskom expect government (tax payers money) to be responsible for their debt without rooting out criminality and corruption. Such a solution is only feeding the risk of criminality and corruption.
Today Eskom produces about half of what it produced before 1994, and employs about twice the number of personnel, at wage and salary rates double what was offered before! No chance to put that right as long as the ANC exists.
Who designed Medupi & Kusile? Group Capital under Jan was responsible for awarding the contracts to build the power stations. He never answered the question why these projects took a long time to build.
If they had just appointed a competent team, given them room to move, let them have 5-15 years and stopped any political interference, we would be in a much better place. Commies and cadres, please stop stealing and interfering. These guys need to stop focussing on their parties’ 5 year plans, and start thinking about their country and it’s inhabitants. There are very few countries whose governments seem to care about their constituents right now. The world is a mess. Politicians might eventually just end up without an income some day, if they claim and abuse too much power. When and how did these individuals become our rulers? And they actually call themselves the “ruling party”!? We need a government, not rulers. Decentralisation of power needs to be the goal, or we are finished.
Jan, thank you for the honest and professional insight. I had the great pleasure to meet with you, a few months ago, at a POLASA presentation you kindly did.
The buck stops at the top- CR appoints the useless ministers in his cabinet, many to ensure political alliances are maintained and staying in power is much more important than lifting the people
Jan is very clued up but he is failing to hit the nail on the head , the problem with South Africa is the mindset of the labor force where they think that companies owe them a job and by that a salary but they don't want to deliver productivity to leads to profit's which pays their salary and the upkeep of the tooling or other vitals that is needed to continue operation .
The original planning by Eskom where demand centers, transmission and generation were planned synergistically led to superb performance ! The minute those 3 entities became isolated and run without forward thinking and planning , they lost the plot ! They could not think ahead, realize the technology changes and start catching up !
Jan has spoken candidly and been very diplomatic. I can relate to what he said during his interview. Two issues he raised was Asset and human capital. I totally aggree with him. Eskom as failed on these issues. The experienced staff was pushed out of there jobs. Eskom cannot account of their assets, more so there movable assets. What Jan may have forgotten to mention is that in the 80s Eskom was run as 3 different ententies. I. E. Distribution, Generation and Transmission. Those CEO that took the decesion to merge these business units for whatever reason must be held accountable
Jan got one big thing incorrect. None of the Medupi and Kusile design defects have been fixed. The improved performance is due to Eskom starting to sort of operate the units as the should. The first design defects is only being addressed this year on the a Unit on each station.
You are correct he did not understand the issues and the OEM is the last one to fix it's mistakes. Eskom are moving very slowly on this which will cost us all dearly.
It doesn't matter who they put in charge of ESKOM. If the list of things they are not allowed to do is longer than what they must do, it is a waste of time.
He did NOT say ‘employing an attorney was the wrong decision’. De Ruyter as a businessman’s ‘weakness’ was technical - that is normal- no one is good at everything. Jan went on the explain that De Ruyter assembled a great technical team and HAD they been left to do their work they would have been fantastic. TRUTH BE TOLD- Jan reiterated De Ruyter’s sentiments of the criminality and cooperation - Does that and the sheer incompetence and madness of BEE not make you worry? I guess the citizens are not hungry & thirsty enough - it’s not dark enough yet for us to understand the depth of mismanagement of a country to boot out these cadres.
@@MyBeulahLand That's a polite admission that it's was a wrong decision. Boeing in the USA are facing challenges because of this. Technical companies should be headed by technically competent people.
And as an engineer, trust me, I have seen this before. Technical incompetent people making decisions makes it even easier for the corrupt to dupe them.
@@blessingndlovu9037 …. So….. from one eskomite to another - engineers were and are not gods. In Eskom’s hay days they were part of an orchestra - every skilled person was part of a well oiled machine, singing from the same song sheet - that is what made us the best in the world - skills, teamwork.
@@MyBeulahLand Fair point Ma'am. Does your point then mean those who were at the helm then didn't do proper skills transfer over the years. And allowed for that culture to disintegrate?
Jan Oberholzer - the fact that we still having load shedding- despite your 26 yrs version of the Eskom story - means your failed as Eskom engineer and CEO .Much of someone's real character lies in what they don't say about themselves. Self-praise is the first sign of insecurity. Some things sound better if they don't come from you
got few questions why split Eskom into 3 if it still has the same shareholder or the true intention to change the shareholder? 2. one of the key question they don't ask is what is it that the Eskom team did in 2016, 2017 do to make sure there was no loadshedding even though it was facing the very same conditions why couldn't they implement that working strategy? lastly you can't try to implement business models into Eskom that has been a recipe for failure
The challenge is to get a large enough section of the population to pay for something that the government has to provide to those who cannot or do not want to pay for it themselves.
I need to thank all the ANC voters for devaluing the Rand currency and making my dollars go further than I ever imagined. Please keep up the good work and don’t let the last white switch the lights back on.
Hope is actually an ugly word. As in hope comes forth misery lurking in the shadows. So intelligent people know how to act, because to be intelligent U have to respond and to be responsible in the moment...so firstly remove the misery of hope, then the shadows of misery will leave in their own accord....😮
43:01 there's a long list of foreign owned and managed Solar farms in SA. Some commissioned as far back as 2016. This smells of a plan hatched years ago by the top in SA. Trading in solar is a gold mine in SA.
31:00 tragedy of 'new' South Africa - the rush to replace experienced, capable, mainly 'white' employees (professionals, artisans, managers, administrators etc) with 'black'' staff, to the detriment of those very 'black' staff and the whole country.. - so much wasted opportunity to provide operational continuity through continuity in capabilities through collaboration and skills transfer and that was lost;
Your positive contribution was to get a wonderful fat salary and pension for the whole family for generations ahead.. well done for trying to root out the frauds.. but they will continue to rake in much bigger salaries while making disastrous management decisions.. the cancer just continues..
29:24 Deputy President: _"So, Jan... what you are saying is we need a lot more new cars?"_ Deputy President makes a note: _"Google how to encourage bribes when buying cars..."_ Deputy President (missing the point completely): _"Jan, does it matter what kind of cars we buy? Is the colour important? Should they be manual or automatic? Petrol or Diesel?"_
Jan is 100% many that have had to leave rsa come back as they loved sa,but it all seems so foreign and with hard currency foreiginally very cheap, with no law and no order.
The biggest problem is that the powerstations were created and maintain for 5-10% of the population. The corruption didnt start with the current regime, but way before. The length of the maintenance plan of the stations were 30 to 40 years. Make the sums and understand in between this there is greed. This aint a simple story.
The issue you point out is correct in the short term but not over 30 years. Every business professional will tell you that fraud and corruption is inherent in any business system but it must be under control otherwise it can take the business under. That is what is happening in Eskom, management is not in control of shrinkage ( fraud and corruption) and it is taking the company and the economy further down the tubes.
@@menzimngadi6793 And when you steal from a strategic national utility, you bring the entire country down! How are we going to attract foreign investment into RSA with no infrastructure? What these guys forget is that without direct foreign investment, RSA is dead and the hungry will be even hungrier.
Such shocking criminality...
What's wrong with these people??!
So sad...
No escape from poverty is possible under these conditions...
Greed and the love of materialism.
9 forensic investigations on this guy... But none on any one else.
A key message.............dont rock the boat!!
I'm a retired Professional Civil Engineer. The same as in the Electrical Engineering environment, happened in the Civil Engineering environment with water, sanitation, and roads.
It was undoubtedly the master plan of the Tripartite Alliance of the African National Congress (ANC), the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and the South African Communist Party (SACP) to destroy before SA it could be rebuilt that ran out of control.
It started with TM’s term of office with the introduction of the cadres, supported by the communist party from labour level at the bottom and communists in parliament that drove legislation and regulation from the top that made it impossible to provide services and wealth to the SA community.
Spot on. They are criminals, only feathering their own nests.
Jip, they decided that before 1994. To destroy every institution, enrich themselfs, because the wealth of the county was build on their backs. The only thing left is the pension fund,and they started recently, watch and see.
What is the difference between an Ass and a Donkey? Well let's see. An Ass is a Trade Unionist, and a Donkey is a Politician...I don't think one tell the difference....😊😅😂....
How can Eskom expect government (tax payers money) to be responsible for their debt without rooting out criminality and corruption.
Such a solution is only feeding the risk of criminality and corruption.
This non plussed behaviour is happening in many businesses throughout this country. It's no wonder people are leaving in droves.
This is the scariest interview I have heard on BizNews................
Fast forward to the 1st June for the ANC / EFf coalition...
@@Truthseeker-iz3dj Don't even joke about that option!! R30 = US$1
Valuable insights from Jan. Brings back many memories. Experience is essential. Keep going, Jan
Today Eskom produces about half of what it produced before 1994, and employs about twice the number of personnel, at wage and salary rates double what was offered before!
No chance to put that right as long as the ANC exists.
Who designed Medupi & Kusile? Group Capital under Jan was responsible for awarding the contracts to build the power stations. He never answered the question why these projects took a long time to build.
The 2016 Hydro project in the Congo was also stopped. One can only imagine what led to that.
Uitsonderlike persoon met n doel in die lewe!!!!
This interview was an eye opener
If they had just appointed a competent team, given them room to move, let them have 5-15 years and stopped any political interference, we would be in a much better place.
Commies and cadres, please stop stealing and interfering.
These guys need to stop focussing on their parties’ 5 year plans, and start thinking about their country and it’s inhabitants.
There are very few countries whose governments seem to care about their constituents right now. The world is a mess.
Politicians might eventually just end up without an income some day, if they claim and abuse too much power.
When and how did these individuals become our rulers? And they actually call themselves the “ruling party”!?
We need a government, not rulers.
Decentralisation of power needs to be the goal, or we are finished.
Excellent Jan Oberholzer.
Africanization of South Africa.
Jan, thank you for the honest and professional insight. I had the great pleasure to meet with you, a few months ago, at a POLASA presentation you kindly did.
Extremely good interview. Exactly what I suspected all along. Absolutely NO wonder.
The buck stops at the top- CR appoints the useless ministers in his cabinet, many to ensure political alliances are maintained and staying in power is much more important than lifting the people
Bloemhof Dam wall also have a portal for generation which is not in use
Jan is very clued up but he is failing to hit the nail on the head , the problem with South Africa is the mindset of the labor force where they think that companies owe them a job and by that a salary but they don't want to deliver productivity to leads to profit's which pays their salary and the upkeep of the tooling or other vitals that is needed to continue operation .
The original planning by Eskom where demand centers, transmission and generation were planned synergistically led to superb performance ! The minute those 3 entities became isolated and run without forward thinking and planning , they lost the plot ! They could not think ahead, realize the technology changes and start catching up !
Spot on Salute van Wyk and I left and when I came back it was beyond scary
Jan has spoken candidly and been very diplomatic.
I can relate to what he said during his interview.
Two issues he raised was Asset and human capital. I totally aggree with him. Eskom as failed on these issues. The experienced staff was pushed out of there jobs. Eskom cannot account of their assets, more so there movable assets.
What Jan may have forgotten to mention is that in the 80s Eskom was run as 3 different ententies. I. E. Distribution, Generation and Transmission. Those CEO that took the decesion to merge these business units for whatever reason must be held accountable
That is why they are reinventing the wheel with Eskom as well.
@@brunoklynsmith9169 I still say those CEOs and the minister as to be held accountable. Consequences msnsgement
Tough place when a COO who together with a CEO were not able to change the organisation, including its culture.
Jan got one big thing incorrect. None of the Medupi and Kusile design defects have been fixed. The improved performance is due to Eskom starting to sort of operate the units as the should.
The first design defects is only being addressed this year on the a Unit on each station.
You are correct he did not understand the issues and the OEM is the last one to fix it's mistakes. Eskom are moving very slowly on this which will cost us all dearly.
It doesn't matter who they put in charge of ESKOM. If the list of things they are not allowed to do is longer than what they must do, it is a waste of time.
I find with my customers if it is running it is fine, when it breaks fix it so it runs again
Insightful discussion, him admitting that employing a lawyer to run Eskom was a wrong decision shows the man's honesty.
He did NOT say ‘employing an attorney was the wrong decision’.
De Ruyter as a businessman’s ‘weakness’ was technical - that is normal- no one is good at everything.
Jan went on the explain that De Ruyter assembled a great technical team and HAD they been left to do their work they would have been fantastic.
TRUTH BE TOLD- Jan reiterated De Ruyter’s sentiments of the criminality and cooperation - Does that and the sheer incompetence and madness of BEE not make you worry?
I guess the citizens are not hungry & thirsty enough - it’s not dark enough yet for us to understand the depth of mismanagement of a country to boot out these cadres.
@@MyBeulahLand That's a polite admission that it's was a wrong decision. Boeing in the USA are facing challenges because of this. Technical companies should be headed by technically competent people.
And as an engineer, trust me, I have seen this before. Technical incompetent people making decisions makes it even easier for the corrupt to dupe them.
@@blessingndlovu9037 …. So….. from one eskomite to another - engineers were and are not gods.
In Eskom’s hay days they were part of an orchestra - every skilled person was part of a well oiled machine, singing from the same song sheet - that is what made us the best in the world - skills, teamwork.
@@MyBeulahLand Fair point Ma'am. Does your point then mean those who were at the helm then didn't do proper skills transfer over the years. And allowed for that culture to disintegrate?
Uitstekend!
I dont get why people over complicate things. Just create micro grids within communities and give the community shares in their micro grid.
That is how it was until meglomaniacs got free rein.
Is Mr Oberholzer perhaps promoting his new private "Ekskom"?
Jan Oberholzer - the fact that we still having load shedding- despite your 26 yrs version of the Eskom story - means your failed as Eskom engineer and CEO .Much of someone's real character lies in what they don't say about themselves. Self-praise is the first sign of insecurity. Some things sound better if they don't come from you
got few questions why split Eskom into 3 if it still has the same shareholder or the true intention to change the shareholder? 2. one of the key question they don't ask is what is it that the Eskom team did in 2016, 2017 do to make sure there was no loadshedding even though it was facing the very same conditions why couldn't they implement that working strategy?
lastly you can't try to implement business models into Eskom that has been a recipe for failure
Going to go the same way as SASOL and PetroSA. And taxpayers will finance the profits streaming to the annointed few.
The challenge is to get a large enough section of the population to pay for something that the government has to provide to those who cannot or do not want to pay for it themselves.
Jan moet nie bang wees nie sè dit soos dit is!!! Hierdie goed dink ons wittes is bang vir hulle!!!!
You jumped on the renewable bandwagon to destroy Eskom same as Andre de Ruyter.
Meritocracy is dead world wide with AA / DEI
Mostly BEE, that was the death of south africa
Jan vir minister energie, Dawie vir ekonomie, en Cameron, vir veiligheid. Fok die res.
I need to thank all the ANC voters for devaluing the Rand currency and making my dollars go further than I ever imagined. Please keep up the good work and don’t let the last white switch the lights back on.
36:18 "They think "I'm Eskom and we can do it" perhaps not seeing the bigger picture.. Minister Ramokgopa can you please see the bigger picture
Hope is actually an ugly word. As in hope comes forth misery lurking in the shadows. So intelligent people know how to act, because to be intelligent U have to respond and to be responsible in the moment...so firstly remove the misery of hope, then the shadows of misery will leave in their own accord....😮
Inexperienced equates to sabotage...😮😢😮... How can inexperienced people run a highly multifaceted technical company with inexperience...How...?.
43:01 there's a long list of foreign owned and managed Solar farms in SA. Some commissioned as far back as 2016. This smells of a plan hatched years ago by the top in SA. Trading in solar is a gold mine in SA.
Eskom records says between 2013-18 maintaince was done it’s public record this man is talking nonsense
What roll did bbbeee have?
31:00 tragedy of 'new' South Africa - the rush to replace experienced, capable, mainly 'white' employees (professionals, artisans, managers, administrators etc) with 'black'' staff, to the detriment of those very 'black' staff and the whole country..
- so much wasted opportunity to provide operational continuity through continuity in capabilities through collaboration and skills transfer and that was lost;
Your positive contribution was to get a wonderful fat salary and pension for the whole family for generations ahead.. well done for trying to root out the frauds.. but they will continue to rake in much bigger salaries while making disastrous management decisions.. the cancer just continues..
How are the lights staying on at present
Burning diesel and raising tarrifs. No plan for when our allocation for the year runs dry. Get ready for grid collapse.
29:24
Deputy President: _"So, Jan... what you are saying is we need a lot more new cars?"_
Deputy President makes a note: _"Google how to encourage bribes when buying cars..."_
Deputy President (missing the point completely): _"Jan, does it matter what kind of cars we buy? Is the colour important? Should they be manual or automatic? Petrol or Diesel?"_
What is Bronwyns surname
Jan is 100% many that have had to leave rsa come back as they loved sa,but it all seems so foreign and with hard currency foreiginally very cheap, with no law and no order.
So hier is my raad, as jy kán, imigreer. Die skrif is teen die muur, dit is Suid-Afrika se laaste uur.
Dis Waar...
Jan. Net soos ek jou geken het in "Protection Design" in Mega Watt Park. ń Man wat ń verskil wou maak in mense se lewens. Ek respekteer jou.
Human capital challenges...😂
To quote some popular podcaster:
******* have a different brain. Its not that they do not have a brain by the way....its a different one
The biggest problem is that the powerstations were created and maintain for 5-10% of the population. The corruption didnt start with the current regime, but way before. The length of the maintenance plan of the stations were 30 to 40 years. Make the sums and understand in between this there is greed. This aint a simple story.
The issue you point out is correct in the short term but not over 30 years. Every business professional will tell you that fraud and corruption is inherent in any business system but it must be under control otherwise it can take the business under. That is what is happening in Eskom, management is not in control of shrinkage ( fraud and corruption) and it is taking the company and the economy further down the tubes.
@@menzimngadi6793 And when you steal from a strategic national utility, you bring the entire country down! How are we going to attract foreign investment into RSA with no infrastructure? What these guys forget is that without direct foreign investment, RSA is dead and the hungry will be even hungrier.
Incorrect, the ANC broke it
Yes, exactly, the numbers don’t lie
Only 10% of JHB had power?
Sal graag wil weet hoeveel geld gulle vir oberholser betaal ?????..wat was sy salaris en wat was sy aftree paket????