Play the cards right - David Lipschitz's Letter in the Cape Times on 1st December 2017

Much is being written about Eskom's failure and the reasons for it.

It is sobering to think that when Medupi coal power station was originally budgeted, it was forecasted to be complete by November 2015, and Kusile by April 2017. If this 9.6 GW was already on the grid, the fiscus would be earning R286 billion more per annum and another two million people would be employed. Instead of being "R50 billion under budget", as Minister Malusi Gigaba recently said, we would be R300 bn over-budget.

It is time for people to realise that you can tax the input side of the economy as much as you like, but it is the output side of the economy that will make you orders of magnitude more money in income, and also in savings due to not having to pay out so much unemployment benefit.

SA Growth Concerns : Letter in the Cape Times on 1st November 2017

Here is the letter as it was in the Cape Times.

Suppose your income in 2016 was R1 144 billion and your forecast was a 1.7% increase in growth, one would suggest a new budget of R1 163 bn.

At the moment, income for 2017 is projected at R1 214 bn, which is 6.1% higher than last year's income and with a revised forecast of 0.7% growth, the 6.1% divided by 0.7% gives me an 871% improvement in my projection.

We should be celebrating our success in squeezing more money out of an already distressed taxpayer.

This enabling government's National Development Plan calls for active citizens to contribute to the economy. Well, this active citizen has volunteered to supply this government with electricity at night and at peak times, at no capital cost to the economy. But this citizen is being ignored. Why is the government ignoring the NDP?

A modern economy needs electricity and water in plentiful amounts and cheaply and available when it is needed. But we as a nation are massively short of electricity and water. In the early 2020s Eskom will switch off old power stations, which means that even if the nuclear was running in five years it wouldn't strengthen our grid. There are alternatives. Why isn't government considering them?

If South Africa grew as a fast as our neighbors, tax revenues would automatically increase. Why is government continuing with old programs which aren't working instead of adopting new processes as Minister (Malusi) Gigaba says we should be doing?

And here is the full detail of what I wrote:

Question 1:

Suppose your income in 2016 was R1144 billion and your forecast was for a 1.7% increase in growth, one would suggest a new budget of R1163 billion. At the moment income for 2017 is projected at R1214 billion which is 6.1% higher than last year's income and with a revised forecast of 0.7% growth, the 6.1% divided by 0.7% gives me an 871% improvement in my projection.

We should be celebrating our success in squeezing more money out of an already distressed taxpayer, but instead we are saying we are R50 billion short. What am I missing?

Question 2:

This enabling government's National Development Plan calls for active citizens to contribute to the economy. Well, this active citizen has volunteered to supply this government with electricity at night and at peak times, at no capital cost to the economy. But this citizen is being ignored whilst government plans to spend R1400 billion on nuclear power thus increasing my tax burden by R6000 per month without actually getting any more electricity. Why is the government ignoring the NDP?

Question 3:

A modern economy needs electricity and water in plentiful amounts and cheaply and available when it is needed. But we as a nation are massively short of electricity and water. We need this electricity and water now, not in 10 years time. Even if we start building 9.6 GW of new nuclear at Koeberg tomorrow, we won't have this electricity for 10 years. And in the early 2020's Eskom will switch off old power stations which means that even if the nuclear was running in five years it wouldn't strengthen our grid. There are alternatives. Why isn't government considering them?

Question 4:

Why does government still continue to see how much they can get out of the spending side of the economy rather than how much they can get out of the income side of the economy? As stated in the Mid-Term Budget speech, the rest of Africa and the world are growing far faster than South Africa. If South Africa grew as a fast as our neighbors, tax revenues would automatically increase because of our growth. Adding to the tax burden with 20% or more electricity, water, fuel, food, etc, tax increases is slowing down our growth. Why is government continuing with old programs which aren't working instead of adopting new processes as Minister Gigaba says we should be doing?

I look forward to being enlightened with the answers that are suggested.

Only by being unified in diversity can we truly be free. Article about BREXIT by David Lipschitz in Cape Times on Friday 1st July 2016

AS USUAL, the naysayers are out in force, telling the world's people that the world is about to disintegrate and we should all start praying and packing up our businesses and lives, heading for the hills.

Brexit, Britain exiting the EU, might not be as bad as some would believe.

We live in an over-centralised world where the people at the centre channel all the energy and funds via themselves, raking off commissions and other monies for themselves. Corruption is rife. Palms are greased. And the money laundering is incredible.

Imagine a world where Britain separates from the EU. And then, imagine that Britain itself "disintegrates" like Czechoslovakia, which become the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Imagine that Britain becomes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - four separate countries.

And then, imagine that these countries disintegrate further and England's counties become countries called Leicestershire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, etc.

Imagine that these "new" "city states" want to work with each other to better each other for the betterment of mankind, not for warlike reasons.

Each "shire" has unique capabilities. Each "shire" has unique inspiration and motivation. Each "shire" can "muster" its people in a unique way to be "better" - "shire" people. More fulfilled. More energetic. More resourceful. More at peace with each other in their own "local communities", connected by the "internet-super-highway" (Jeremy Rifkin).

At the moment, all these "separate" people are lumped together in a community called the EU where everyone is meant to be the same. But difference should be celebrated, not inhibited.

When one looks at nature, one sees millions of colours, millions of smells, millions of shapes. Almost nothing is the same as the next thing. And yet, we humans are all trying to be alike instead of celebrating our humanity by being who we truly are.

Men and women are really different. Blacks and whites have different value to offer society, knowledgeable about different parts of an increasingly complex and diverse world.

Different religions can and should work together for the betterment of all. Different countries and societies have different human capital, different systems that should all contribute to a new "whole." And even West and East have different ways of viewing science, with the West preferring a "proof" approach, and the East preferring an "observation" approach.

We live in a "connected" world where anyone anywhere can "be their own boss", accessing the internet and trading with anyone anywhere on the planet. This "flat" (read Thomas Friedman's book Hot, Flat and Crowded) world makes everyone "appear" to be the same. It appears that we all have the same opportunities. It appears that we all have the same markets. It appears that we all have the same resources.

Yes re opportunities. Yes re markets. No re resources. Small communities of resourceful communities have changed the world, and this is what we need today.

In fact Margaret Mead said "never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

Nelson Mandela, the Madiba (father) of our modern South Africa, celebrated difference. He intuitively knew that by celebrating the uniqueness that the 11 different "tribes" of South Africa has, and by keeping our languages and cultures separate, that we would "thrive" in this diverse world. Only by being unified in diversity can we truly be free. Many people said that we should have one South Africa with one language. They are wrong!

Single monoculture crops are failures waiting to happen. Whilst planting a single crop might mean a huge profit in the event of everything going well, a "bad" year could spell disaster.

How much better to sow a field with multiple varieties of corn and multiple other crops that co-exist with corn. Any single point of failure is covered by the diversity planted on the field.

Brexit allows us to celebrate difference, whilst being part of a diverse, integrated-whole. We should applaud the people who have taken this painful decision and support the processes that will come out of it.

Break out of mould. Letter by David Lipschitz in Cape Times on Friday 1st July 2016

MANY people, including myself, are worried about "the singularity", an event that is supposedly going to occur some time in the future when robots take over.

Robots have already "taken over"!

I have come to realise that since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been turned into robots.

Working "9 to 5". Spending two hours a day in the traffic. Cooking. Cleaning. Tidying.

And then the weekend comes around, and if we are lucky, we have some time off to watch rugby or TV or read a book. If we are really, really lucky we do something that does not cost us anything, like spending a couple of hours talking to our friends, drinking free water from the Newlands spring.

We go to school to turn us into the robots that our society needs. I did badly at school. I didn't fit in. I couldn't catch (a ball). I didn't understand what was going on.

When I was asked what I thought of a poem, I wrote what I thought.

Twenty years after school, I realised that what the teachers wanted me to say about the poem was what they thought - "what do you think about the poem?" actually meant "what do I, the teacher or textbook, think about the poem?"

Imagine Shakespeare in a modern school. Would we have his wisdom in the "modern" age?

Luckily I "focussed" in matric, and my mathematics and science marks went from 45 percent to 75 percent and this gave me a "university exemption".

And then at university, I was freed to think my way, as long as it was provable. For example, there might be a number of proofs for Pythagoras's theorem, an algebraic proof and a geometric proof. Either proof is valid in an exam.

And in the university of life, there are multiple possibilities if only we are open to see them.

Our school system constrains our thinking. How do we break out of this mould?

And what of "the singularity"? Fortunately robots don't have intuition, although they sometimes seem to be cleverer than us humans.

Letter in Cape Times 27th January 2016: It all starts at home

Until we find ways of making women true partners in our still male dominated society, often with women of the same race and religion maltreated by their men, how can we have a hope of eradicating racism?

Respect needs to begin in our homes!

Letter in Cape Times 22nd January 2016: Follow Strategy

Follow Strategy

The Nersa hearings and Eskom's 17 percent price increase request refer.

The reason for Eskom's customers not buying its product, electricity, is because Eskom have told their customers not to buy its product.

The price is too high and it isn't available.

One might think that load shedding isn't happening, but Eskom has 30GW and should already have 50GW, according to their own forecasts.

If South Africa was like the rest of the world, then South Africa would have 160GW by now. Electricity growth worldwide is 4 percent per annum and South Africa had 40GW 20 years ago.

Eskom made "profits" (actually prepayments from its customers to ensure service delivery in the future, which should have got us 50GW by now) in the past and paid massive bonuses. Now it's time for it to tell its employees to pay in, just like the rest of us have to when the going gets tough.

And giving Eskom R8 billion for diesel is like paying them because of the mistakes it has made - rewarding failure! The way to solve this problem is to implement the contents of the Energy White Paper of 1998 and the Renewable Energy White Paper of 2003. White Papers are the basis of government's strategy. If our government followed their own strategy, South Africa wouldn't be in this mess.

Letter to the Cape Times: 26 February 2015: Planet in Trouble

Dear Editor

Whilst Sydney Kaye and so many others deny climate change and, who knows, maybe he is right, something that is undeniable is mankind's destruction of the environment upon which he depends.

Here is a quote from Fred Pearce's book Confessions of an Eco Sinner: "Our planet is certainly in trouble, and us with it. More than 6 billion of us cannot fail to leave a dangerously large footprint. We consume 40% of all the plant growth on the planet, a third of the marine life and half the available fresh water. We have halved the geographical extent of most natural ecosystems, from wetlands to rainforests to grasslands. Our pollution has tripled the amount of nitrogen that nature has to process each year, and doubled the amount of sulphur.

​"​We have added more than a third to atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the planet's thermostat. We are running down her resources, like soil and clean water, as certainly as if we were running up a credit-card bill. The planet's very life-support systems are under threat."

And then Pearce goes on to say: "I want to put my faith in the children of Toba, with their survival skills."

Toba was a massive volcanic eruption 73,000 years ago that caused a "night" that lasted 1 000 years. All except approximately 2 000 humans died, and these humans lived in the eastern plains of Africa and survived because they worked together.

The internet and newspapers like yours, getting the messages out, be they paradoxical or conflicting, are allowing millions of people to change their view of the world and decide for themselves if they wish to work together to reduce their environmental footprint and​, perhaps in the process, not only save themselves but also save those who deny this massive threat to our existence.

Yours faithfully,
David Lipschitz
Milnerton

Crank up old machine for new tricks

My first ever Comment on the Insight page of a newspaper.

We are all very excited here in Milnerton. Thank you to everyone for your support and to the Cape Times for publishing my letters over the past 6 years since I started writing about electricity. I feel like I just got my degree in journalism after more than 6,000 hours invested and very many conferences, reports, newspaper articles, magazine articles, discussions, forums, debates, presentations to parliament, meetings with political leaders, my friends at the Milnerton Proper Residents Association and the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance, etc.

I'd especially like to thank my Facebook community friends for your ongoing support on this particular forum. Being an Active Citizen is often very lonely, but you guys and girls always show up with your "likes" and the many comments, critical sometimes, but always appreciated, and your ongoing support.

Thank you to everyone. You are always in my prayers.

Click on the picture above to read the article.

20140812 - Letter in today's Cape Times

Just a reminder: Eskom's first 800 MW Medupi Power Station turbine (unit) was meant to go on stream in September 2012. And then we were expecting the other units to come on stream at 9 month intervals, so we should have at least 2,400 MW on stream by now, but we have nothing, and the latest news, from our new Minister of Public Works, Lynne Brown, is that the first 800 MW unit will be on stream in December 2014 and then the units will come on stream at 12 month intervals.

South Africans are being held to ransom by our government, Department of Energy, Eskom officials, and their consultants, advisors, contractors, staff, and foreign suppliers. They are impeding growth and contributing to South Africa's debt crisis, unemployment, exchange rate crisis, inflation, and the possibility that South Africa might be downgraded to Junk Bond Status. Foreign Investors cannot invest in "Junk Bonds" and will sell their South African debt (bonds) and possibly investments, potentially causing a massive crash in our stock market and possibly worse strikes and hardship. But the situation doesn't need to be like this. We can change it.

The situation must change.

South African citizens must take responsibility for themselves and not rely on government to help anymore regarding electricity provision, although government obviously still has a role to play.