Hitachi Blues
Emerging from the long dark night of apartheid, South Africans agreed in 1994 that in future we will live by a system in which openness, accountability and responsiveness to the needs of ordinary people will be the order of the day. We even spelt out these values as founding provisions of our new constitution.Now Hitachi, a giant Japanese conglomerate with worldwide interests, wants us to believe that it did not know it was getting into business with what it calls an ANC front company as its BEE partner to tender for two Eskom boiler making contracts worth R 38.5 billion. We are also expected to believe that for an initial investment of "over R1 million" the front company will receive an anticipated dividend stream of about R50 million over the next eight years, simply for taking up the BEE stake of 25% of the shares in Hitachi Power Africa; an incredible "money for jam" return on the initial investment. Then we are told that the Eskom tender process has been certified fair by accountants. This was done despite the presence of ANC deployees on the tender committee of Eskom, chaired by Valli Moosa, a member of the NEC of the ANC, and on the board of Hitachi Power Africa which shares directors in common with the ANC front company. We are also asked to accept that no political party will benefit from the dividends because a trust, which owns the front company, is obliged to ensure that the dividend money goes to the previously disadvantaged. Presumably the grateful "natural persons" who are recipients of this largesse will not be members of the ANC and will be required to undertake not to vote, in spite of the generosity of the ANC trust toward them, so that the assurances by Hitachi spokesmen do not turn out to be as hollow as they appear.
Meanwhile, Eskom has been caught secretly selling electricity to well heeled corporate customers at below cost while piling on the pressure on the unsuspecting public to pay ever escalating amounts for our meagre consumption of the self same electricity. Eskom ignores or belittles initiatives to change to renewable and clean energy sources, not because these are preferable to burning coal that destroys our precious life giving atmosphere, but because Eskom is trapped in a web of vested interests from which it lacks the will to escape. Evidence of secret deals by Eskom is suppressed in parliament and allegations of fraud and corruption are not investigated. When whistleblowers approach ANC parliamentary energy committee chair Vytjie Mentor, she chases them away and she also castigates opposition members of parliament for seeking to get to the bottom of the whistleblowers' story.
The South African public tolerates these shenanigans at great risk; not only is the sustainability of our environment imperilled by the pollution that persistent coal burning will cause, the fabric of our value system is challenged by the collusion, corruption and conflicts of interest involved in this sorry saga. This is bigger and worse by far than the arms deals. In the absence of a challenge to or proper explanation for these dealings, another dark night awaits our beloved country: the dark night of corruption, cronyism and cadre deployment.
Paul Hoffman SC
April 2010
