The Economist 14Dec2019

40 Middle East & Africa The EconomistDecember 14th 2019

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word—I should retire or resign.”

There are signs of progress. On Novem-

ber 21st investigators arrested Bongani

Bongo, a security minister under Mr Zuma.

He was charged with attempting to bribe an

official to obstruct investigations into the

looting of Eskom, a state-owned electricity

provider. Mr Bongo, who remains an mp

(chair of the home-affairs committee, no

less), is the first politician to be arrested in

relation to state capture. A few days later

the npa won another victory when a court

froze the assets of Regiments Capital, a

company accused of orchestrating corrupt

deals linked to the Gupta brothers, busi-

nessmen with close links to Mr Zuma.

Yet even as cases are built, Ms Batohi be-

lieves that the npais serving as a deterrent

to graft. Previously there was little chance

that corruption would be investigated, “so

it was a risk worth taking”, she says. “Those

days are gone.”

The third challenge facing the npa,

though, is that reclaiming a captured state

means more than putting crooks in jail. It

will require Mr Ramaphosa to make good

on his promises to reform failing state-

owned companies such as Eskom (see next

article). It also requires him to ensure that

prosecutions are not seen as political.

Under Thabo Mbeki (president from

1999 to 2008) and Mr Zuma the npawas

used as a political tool. By contrast, Mr Ra-

maphosa appointed Ms Batohi after a mer-

itocratic, transparent process. The presi-

dent “unwaveringly gave me his word that

there will be absolutely no interference” in

the work of the npa, says Ms Batohi. “Since

my appointment, that has been absolutely

the case.”

Yet opponents of Mr Ramaphosa—

many of whom want him out so they can

keep stealing and stay out of jail—will al-

most certainly cry foul if senior figures in

the ruling African National Congress are

prosecuted. For now, all the npa head can

do is get on with her job. Success will not be

clear-cut, but if she can help convict the

crooks it will inspire not just South Afri-

cans but reformers in other venal regimes,

such as Angola, Pakistan and Ukraine. “It’s

not going to be easy. It’s not gonna be

quick,” she says. But, adds Ms Batohi, “fail-

ure is not an option.”^7

I

n recent daysthe only thing darker

than South Africans’ homes has been

their humour. On December 9th Eskom,

the state-owned power utility, an-

nounced its biggest-ever blackouts,

turning off the lights across Africa’s most

industrialised country. Some wags used

the remaining battery on their phones to

vent on social media. “The Ein South

Africa stands for electricity,” read one

post. Another suggested that “Eskom’s

been bad all year...in the hope they’ll get

coal for Christmas.”

Many South Africans have stopped

seeing the funny side. The failure of

Eskom’s coal-fired power stations meant

the loss of almost a third of its 44,000mw

capacity (14,000mw, roughly the poten-

tial output of Denmark). The blackouts

may tip the country into recession for the

second time in two years.

Eskom was quick to blame inclement

weather. It has indeed been very rainy.

But the root causes are gross mismanage-

ment and rampant corruption. Two huge

new power stations—Medupi and Ku-

sile—are years behind schedule and

billions of dollars over budget. Under

Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former presi-

dent, Eskom was systematically looted.

Today it is broke, with debts of 450bn

rand ($30bn) that are crippling the public

finances (see Buttonwood).

Cyril Ramaphosa, Mr Zuma’s succes-

sor, has promised better management

and the “unbundling” of Eskom’s three

main parts: generation, transmission

and distribution. Yet there has been little

urgency. Andre de Ruyter, the incoming

chief executive, does not start until

January. Worse still, Mr Ramaphosa

seems not to grasp the scale of the crisis.

On the day the huge blackouts were

announced he described Medupi as “a

fitting symbol of the importance of our

state-owned enterprises”.

The tragedy is that the crisis is avoid-

able. Unbundling could be accelerated

and assets could be sold to more efficient

operators. The government could allow

cities and companies to buy their own

power and expand its auction scheme

that allows private renewable-energy

providers to sell to the grid. Mr Rama-

phosa may fear the political conse-

quences of such steps, if his party and its

allies in the trade unions complain. But

the alternative is surely worse. South

African voters are already tiring of a

well-meaning president who cannot

keep the lights on.

A failure of power

South Africa’s electricity crisis

JOHANNESBURG

Cyril Ramaphosa is cleaning house, but he cannot keep the lights on

What they used before candles

A

gaggle ofchildren play outside Do-

rothy Nabitaka’s front door on the out-

skirts of Kampala, the Ugandan capital. She

shares her home with 17 people: her moth-

er, child, sisters, nephews, nieces, cousins,

and several children she has taken in sim-

ply because they had nowhere else to stay.

She helps others pay school fees with the

money she earns selling animal feed. In all

she gives away around four-fifths of her in-

come, she reckons, though she is not really

counting. “I don’t like seeing people suffer-

ing,” she explains.

Sharing within social networks is cen-

tral to economic life in much of Africa. Al-

though kinship systems vary, obligations

typically extend beyond the nuclear family

to include the children of siblings as well as

cousins, or sometimes larger units such as

clans. People turn to friends and relations

for help with school fees, hospital bills, or

for a place to stay. Where formal institu-

tions are weak, the family is bank, business

partner and welfare state.

At times the pressure to share can be sti-

fling. “People make you feel guilty when

they see you with a house, car or even a

good dress,” says one Ugandan journalist.

Black South Africans talk about paying a

“black tax” to support a web of dependents.

In Ethiopia, Pentecostal Christianity has

taken off, in part because it offers an escape

from traditional kinship obligations.

One way to keep hold of your money is

to hide it. Zainab Lamin, a housekeeper in

Sierra Leone, tells her sisters she is unem-

ployed. “If they know I have a job,” she says,

“they will be sending their children to

KAMPALA

In much of Africa the family is bank,

business partner and welfare state

Africa’s sharing economy

Brothers in alms