Energy Supply Crisis

As we plunge into the fourth industrial revolution, there is so much potential and so much we can benefit from our youth. In spite of this, we are further away from greater opportunities as a result of the miseducation and backwardness of our educational institutions. We should have been milking the opportunities presented by the fourth industrial revolution to better our country and keep the youth employed but we are failing greatly as a society.

It’s, unfortunately, a ticking time bomb now, and is either we adapt or we diminish. It’s time that South Africa’s rigid government and the public institution of higher learning get off their immovable high horses and make way for the in-demand skills.

It is ironic that institutions whose sole and main mandate is to foresee the future and help proactively prepare for it are failing to educate the youth in line with where the world is going.

Universities and colleges are still enrolling learners to study in fields whose days are far left behind despite how clear it is the world has changed. Education is no longer just about learning facts and regurgitating them. We are in dire need of creative, data enthusiasts, and technology-obsessed thinkers. Our institutions of higher learning ought to reposition themselves to create educational environments encouraging the development of such thinkers, not people that are overly informed about irrelevant subjects.

With skills in short supply and jobs going unfilled in fourth industry-related fields, and skills over-supply in other fields, it’s time that tertiary institutions looked at training the youth for the reality that is outside their rigid walls. Today’s youth need relevant skills that can be applied in this real world, and not what the world used to be like.

We recognize that our country has an abundance of coal, but coal alone, along with other high-emission sources, is insufficient to meet the country’s energy demands.

Eskom’s failure to meet the country’s power demand is a result of poor planning and our leader’s inability to take proactive measures. We desperately need cost-effective alternatives, especially for the poor and marginalized.

We can only assume what’s in the plan. Our government has recently submitted to donors who have pledged $8.5bn to help the country’s transition to renewable energy.

So far, President Cyril Ramaphosa has made a list of unending announcements and ‘plans’ to implement renewable energy and end the days of load-shedding but nothing tangible has been presented thus far.

As long as we have incapable, greedy, and freeloaders for leaders our load-shedding days will never end. Rumours that load shedding emanates from a capitalist conspiracy to create an impression that the state is failing to sustain the entity for citizens to think the SOE can only thrive under private ownership cannot be out-ruled either.

Recent scandals surrounding our president indicate how ambitious he is as a businessman and a capitalist, so much so that he does not mind bending the rules in his favour.

The solutions to our power problems include issuing licenses to private companies to supply energy and compete for the market. Eskom must also adopt renewable energy at a more rapid speed.

The cost savings from using renewable energy and issuing a leeway to private companies to supply power can offset the initial investment costs, and save South Africans money in the long run.