Alec Erwin, our Minister of Public Enterprises, clearly had dismal school results for basic arithmetic. In a recent article where he responds (at insufferably boring and repetitive length, presumably to distract attention away from the real issues) to press queries about Cape Town's recent blackouts and the entire region's rolling blackouts, Erwin claims that Eskom, SA's state-owned monopolist power utility, has a "reserve margin of just under 15%". He bases this on (his figures): "South Africa's full operational capacity in 2005 was 37500 MW with a reserve
margin of just under 15%. Peak demand in 2005 was 36146 MW."
Now, forgive me if I'm dumb. Or perhaps the calculator I am using is b0rked. But last time I checked (twice!) that represents a reserve margin of 3.6 percent. Hardly the "just under 15%" that this asshat is claiming.
Perhaps we need to send Alec Erwin back to Grade 4?
No. On second thoughts, given the state of the South African school system that would hardly solve the problem, now would it?
Original article at: Creamer Media's Mining Weekly Online, South African Mining News :: News Today
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