Our usual end-of-the-year round up of stories published on Moneyweb found that readers read and shared the article Delay using your inverter: Eskom the most, as well as other stories discussing the ongoing electricity crisis in SA.
Like most other media outlets, coverage of Eskom dominated the news week after week and the electricity crisis was mentioned in countless stories, from company results to the economy and personal finances.
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That Eskom was asking consumers to delay starting up inverters and battery systems when power is switched on after a few hours of load shedding received a lot of commentary from readers too.
Consumers, forced to spend money on backup systems and learn how they work, were quick to correct Eskom’s engineers by pointing out that it was not battery chargers being switched on that cause a spike in demand, but rather the switching off and restarting of appliances to draw power from the grid again.
One reader pointed out that the problem would be warm water geysers switching on again because they draw a lot of power, rather than plugging in a small battery charger.
“Inverter and battery systems, installed in many households to supplement the limited power supply from Eskom, assist consumers by keeping on limited lights and appliances during load shedding,” according to the article.
“During Stage 6, which in recent weeks was a regular occurrence, consumers endure up to 10 hours a day without electricity.
“At these high levels of load shedding it is already becoming a challenge to get batteries charged during limited hours of electricity supply, but Eskom lists delaying the start-up of these systems as something consumers can do to protect the country’s electricity supply and reduce the stages of load shedding necessary to get through winter.”
A reader, nicknamed DocMarkets, commented: “Asking for a grade one friend. If we had electricity we wouldn’t need inverters, would we?”
Eskom was the main feature in two other stories on the Top 10 list. Ironically, one article praised Eskom for reducing load shedding from Stage 8 to Stage 3, while the other predicted a bleak Christmas season as Eskom’s capacity “plummets”.
Top 10 best-read stories
1. Delay using your inverter: Eskom
2. Sol Kerzner’s Fish River Resort looted and abandoned after gang invasions
3. How Eskom managed to tame load shedding
4. Discovery slashes medical savings accounts on its most popular plans
5. Sandton City to start off the new year with no Zara
6. Consumers misled by PnP specials
7. There’s almost nothing left in the BHI bank account
8. The South African towns where electricity supply is privatised
9. Two big Discovery Vitality changes from January
10. Bleak Christmas ahead as Eskom output plummets to new lows
Fish River Resort still closed
The article about the looting of the Fish River Resort in the Eastern Cape was the second most popular story on Moneyweb in 2023. The resort, developed by Sol Kerzner, has been looted and the rooms, offices, dining rooms and kitchens were stripped of everything of value in May 2023, allegedly by disgruntled community members.
The resort is still closed more than six months later, at the beginning of what could have been a very good tourist season.
There is no answer when dialling the published telephone number and the resort does not feature on any of the popular accommodation booking sites.
This is after the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development had spent R84 million maintaining the site over a period of four years before it was handed to the Prudhoe Community Trust following a land claim by the community.
Unfortunately, different factions in the community were at odds as to how to divide the spoils, which led to the looting.
Discovery
Articles about medical schemes are always popular with readers, especially Discovery and any of its schemes and supplementary offerings. Discovery earned two places on the list of Top 10 list.
‘Discovery slashes medical savings accounts on its most popular plans’ told how the medical aid scheme reduced annual increases in members’ premiums by cutting the contributions to the respective savings plan portion of the scheme, together with the amount available in the savings account to pay for day-to-day medical expenses.
“Members and beneficiaries of the most popular plans offered by Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) will see sharp cuts to their medical savings accounts (MSAs) from 2024,” according to the article.
“The group sold this in its announcement about the increases for 2024 by highlighting that practically four in every 10 scheme members (39%) will experience an increase in contributions of less than 4% from January.”
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This article also garnered a lot of comments from readers.
One summarised the facts perfectly: “I cannot understand how anybody can expect to have their medical aid contribution be less than medical cost inflation – minor productivity gains aside, the scheme administrators will have to grow their profit or the shareholders will be vengeful.
“The Savings Account has always been a sop – it only helps with the members’ cash flow at the start of the year. After that it is a low interest loan to the scheme. (Check contribution cost with and without the MSA. A+B = A and B).”
Zara
Interest in the renovation of Zara’s store in Sandton City came as a surprise.
“International fashion retailer Zara’s oldest store in South Africa at Sandton City will be closed for the first three months of 2023 to make way for the store’s extensive makeover, the group has confirmed,” wrote Moneyweb’s Akhona Matshoba.
“Confirmation of Zara’s plans for the flagship store came after concerns were raised on social media in early December that the Spanish retailer – owned by multinational clothing company Inditex – may be closing several of its stores in the country to apparently focus on building its online offering.”
Zara denied that any closures in SA were on the cards in an emailed response to queries from Moneyweb.
“Zara remains committed to our customers in South Africa and this is bolstered by the extensive refurbishment and enlargement of our flagship store at Sandton City shopping centre in Johannesburg,” the group said.
Nothing left in BHI bank account
While authorities believe that BHI Trust and its promoter Craig Warriner have solicited investments of nearly R3 billion in what turned out to be a fraudulent investment scheme, the sequestration of the trust discloses that the money disappeared.
Moneyweb reported at the beginning of November that BHI Trust was sequestrated in an ex parte hearing (where only one party’s evidence is heard) in order to preserve whatever assets remain in the trust’s Nedbank account.
“We now know that just R4.78 million remains. That’s according to a statement issued on Thursday by Cawood Attorneys, which brought the application for the provisional sequestration of BHI,” according to the article.
“Nedbank has been asked to pay these funds over to BHI Trust’s estate account. It’s not known at this stage if there are any other accounts belonging to the trust.”
This poses a number of questions going forward for the joint provisional trustees, Gert Lourens Steyn de Wet and Sumaya Ali Mohamed. They may, as in the case of crypto scam Mirror Trading International (MTI), apply to the high court to declare BHI Trust a Ponzi scheme, in which case any benefits received over the years may have to be repaid. In MTI’s case, the liquidators appear to be targeting the big winners.
Private electricity supply
More discussion on SA’s electrical woes followed, this time with positive news. One of the best-read articles was about a private company that took to managing electricity distribution in Free State towns.
The result was lower electricity tariffs, shorter blocks of load shedding, and prompt payment to Eskom for the supply of electricity.
“Back in 2011 the Mafube Local Municipality – which includes the towns Frankfort, Villiers, Cornelia and Tweeling and is situated south east of the Vaal Dam – received an unsolicited bid,” according to the story.
“In the approach, a private entity, Rural Maintenance, would take over the distribution of electricity and billing in the municipality (tariffs are still set by the municipality, which has been under administration since 2017).
“The contract runs for 25 years and is nearly halfway through. Aside from the R120 million invested in the network, Rural has paid R22.2 million in royalties to the municipality and a total of R709.4 million to Eskom (on behalf of the municipality) for bulk electricity.”
Bad debt write-offs stand at only 0.5% – representing 65 customers of the total of nearly 13 000 customers.
Achieving this has seen the municipality they fall under invest an average of around R11 million to upgrade the network every year for the last 11 years (a total of R120 million). Tariff increases have been below those allowed by Nersa. Its Eskom bill is up to date.
It also implemented a different load shedding methodology which saw load shedding decreasing to 90 minutes at a time, instead of the standard two hours.
This was achieved partly in optimising the load shedding schedule, as well as buying electricity for four private solar farms in the area.
Unfortunately, politicians at the Mafube municipality and Eskom were not pleased with the success and the council tried to cancel the contract with Rural, while Eskom ordered it to implement the standard, and longer, load shedding hours.
