Eskom, BEE and the UAE

Electricity, South African Expats and Nuclear Power

The United Arabic Emirates recently put a photo of the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant on their currency. As was the case in France, Iran, the UK, India, South Africa, America and elsewhere, there is a sense of national pride that comes with the ability to split the Atom. Nuclear Power symbolizes a deep mastery over physics and the laws of nature.

The UAE deserves credit for finishing 4 Nuclear reactors in roughly 10 years, especially given that Nuclear New Builds since the 1990s have ran up ridiculous construction times and budget overruns. The plant’s 10 year construction period includes the obstacles that were faced with regulatory approval and the covid19 pandemic. With just 1 plant, the UAE is able to cover almost 25% of its electricity needs, because Nuclear Energy has the enormous benefit of being energy dense.

The tragedy of this story is that the UAE’s success came partially as a result of South Africa’s failure to capitalize on its own engineering expertise and it’s inability to manage a proper power utility. As Eskom goes into darkness again perhaps the ANC government should reflect on how the catastrophe came about? Why did SA have the expertise and not utilize it to prevent a disaster?

As a former colleague who is acquainted with the site told me, “Currently there are 150 South Africans working on that plant including: Personal Advisor to the CEO; VP: Engineering; Heads of all four reactors; Plus more senior positions.”

It’s an open secret that Dubai and Abu Dhabi is often a preferred destination for South Africa’s Engineers, to the point that it is referred to in polite conversation as our 10th province. But an even a more difficult truth is to mention that many of the engineers are white South Africans who were worked out of their positions by Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Legislation that were enacted since the end of Apartheid. The ANC has in the past accused those engineers of racism and being disloyal to SA, but the reality is otherwise. Affirmative Action Policies around the world all end up with the exact same result - a net effect that is worse to those who it is meant to benefit and to those who it is suppose to harm, all while it tears the social fabric apart. The “racist rhetoric” was exploited by hucksters and opportunist ranging from Julius Malema to international voices such as Trevor Noah and it gave rise to the victimhood industry - the only growing industry in South Africa since the end of Apartheid.

One can arguably make the vague accusation of racism to those who left SA for western countries like Australia and the UK, but surely not those who are prepared to help build up the Middle East, where the majority of the people aren’t not only not white, but also of a different religion? Further analysis reveal that at least since 2019 more black graduates are leaving SA than whites and their reasons are identical to their white counterparts; crime, safety, salary and the fact that SA doesn’t offer them the opportunity to develop their own careers are the primary motivations. Surely if black graduates are leaving SA then it cannot be because they too are racist?

BEE legislation was sold as being temporary, yet today off all the 313 racist pieces of legislation on the books, 37% of them were enacted AFTER the end of Apartheid. To the ANC the policy was never about the advancement of black South Africans into prominent positions or addressing the ills of Apartheid, but rather for their own benefit. BEE adherence in practice became a proxy measure for how much ruling party loyalty and ideology in any organization took precedent over merit. Eskom after all won a series of awards as the most BEE compliant company all while the utility kept on deteriorating as senior ANC members looted vital state resources through a phenomenon that became known as “state capture”. But defenders of this policy should be aware that this didn’t start under Mbeki, or Zuma or end under Ramaphosa, the policy choices go back to Nelson Mandela himself whose government oversaw the corrupt Arms Deal and the systemic implementation of “Transformation” as official state ideology.

So back to the UAE and Nuclear Power, why aren’t these engineers that are highly qualified and competent at home fixing our electricity problems?

Because policy choices by the ruling Party and BEE in particular actively prevented them from doing so. Try as they like, the defenders of the ANC cannot escape from this reality.