http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2008/03/eskom-should-start-charging-royalties.html Trends and Innovation Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:57:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2008/03/eskom-should-start-charging-royalties.html/comment-page-1#comment-637 Gregory Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:07:08 +0000 http://www.cherryflava.dreamhosters.com/?p=502#comment-637 Maybe all Virgin Active gyms can feed the electicity grid. Maybe all Virgin Active gyms can feed the electicity grid.

]]> http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2008/03/eskom-should-start-charging-royalties.html/comment-page-1#comment-636 Anon Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:21:14 +0000 http://www.cherryflava.dreamhosters.com/?p=502#comment-636 Gsus! What a car! Great advert Ogilvy CT Gsus! What a car! Great advert Ogilvy CT

]]> http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2008/03/eskom-should-start-charging-royalties.html/comment-page-1#comment-635 Darren Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:14:54 +0000 http://www.cherryflava.dreamhosters.com/?p=502#comment-635 I think you're both missing the important issue here, which is that neither the Eskom price hike nor the interest rate increases are in any way avoidable. Tito Mboweni is literally being forced to raise interest rates in a desperate attempt to slow down the steep rise in inflation. Sure, it's hurting some people now, but it's far less painful than seeing your savings halve in value every few years as the price of necessities reaches unaffordable levels. It is the lesser of two evils and there is no other choice. As for Eskom's massive price hikes (there will be another 50% hike next year), they are the inevitable consequence of a lack of capital and infrastructural investment coupled to an electricity price that, by world standards, was kept artificially low for far too long. How many times have we heard South Africans boast about our having the world's lowest electricity prices? Did anybody ever stop to wonder why that was; only to realise it was because we were not building the necessary new power stations or adequately maintaining the existing ones? Some did, but they were ignored. Ultimately, somebody has to pay for Eskom's crash building project and it can only be us, either as taxpayers or as consumers. If Eskom is not permitted to raise its electricity prices, it will require the government to fund the expansion and that in turn will likely require a further tax hike to pay for it. It's not pretty but hey, what did people expect when they tolerated (and even cheered) Eskom's existence as a government-owned monopolist parastatal? The only real long-term solution to our woes is to have a free-market in the supply of electricity, but there's insufficient support for such thinking in SA for me to believe that's going to happen anytime soon. I think you’re both missing the important issue here, which is that neither the Eskom price hike nor the interest rate increases are in any way avoidable. Tito Mboweni is literally being forced to raise interest rates in a desperate attempt to slow down the steep rise in inflation. Sure, it’s hurting some people now, but it’s far less painful than seeing your savings halve in value every few years as the price of necessities reaches unaffordable levels. It is the lesser of two evils and there is no other choice.
As for Eskom’s massive price hikes (there will be another 50% hike next year), they are the inevitable consequence of a lack of capital and infrastructural investment coupled to an electricity price that, by world standards, was kept artificially low for far too long. How many times have we heard South Africans boast about our having the world’s lowest electricity prices? Did anybody ever stop to wonder why that was; only to realise it was because we were not building the necessary new power stations or adequately maintaining the existing ones? Some did, but they were ignored.
Ultimately, somebody has to pay for Eskom’s crash building project and it can only be us, either as taxpayers or as consumers. If Eskom is not permitted to raise its electricity prices, it will require the government to fund the expansion and that in turn will likely require a further tax hike to pay for it. It’s not pretty but hey, what did people expect when they tolerated (and even cheered) Eskom’s existence as a government-owned monopolist parastatal? The only real long-term solution to our woes is to have a free-market in the supply of electricity, but there’s insufficient support for such thinking in SA for me to believe that’s going to happen anytime soon.

]]> http://www.cherryflava.com/cherryflava/2008/03/eskom-should-start-charging-royalties.html/comment-page-1#comment-634 MdW Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:34:33 +0000 http://www.cherryflava.dreamhosters.com/?p=502#comment-634 Great idea. Then perhaps we wouldn't have to suffer through a 60% price hike from a utility that can't even deliver basic service. (Smacks of Enron.) Great idea. Then perhaps we wouldn’t have to suffer through a 60% price hike from a utility that can’t even deliver basic service. (Smacks of Enron.)

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