OPINION

STOCK TAKE | Ramokgopa's promises of a steady ship end with iceberg

Ministers are immune to load shedding, though, so we aren't in the same boat

If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from the Titanic disaster, is that it is always a mistake to tempt fate by having excessive pride in your abilities.

It's just a pity that the movers and shakers in government didn't get the memo. Much to their chagrin, one would hope.

While there is much debate still as to whether Captain Edward John Smith actually uttered the infamous words that "not even God" could sink the Titanic in 1912, the doomed ocean liner's fate has served as a massive symbol against being blinded by hubris ever since.

Surely Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa must have known he was asking for trouble when he said at a press briefing that improvements in load shedding to between Stages 1 and 3 were not "due to an act of God", but because of interventions made by the government and businesses.

He didn’t stop there either. In response to questions about whether the grid could handle the freezing temperatures that visited Johannesburg and other parts of the country this week, he also expressed confidence – some may argue excessive confidence given developments this week - that there was sufficient capacity to handle the cold front hitting SA.

What's that saying about famous last words … Fast-forward three days and a couple of breakdowns later and we are once again in the grip of Stage 6 load shedding as a bitter cold chills South Africans to the bone.

Ramokgopa had an even more recent example of the folly of being confident to study when he took to the podium on Sunday to give the nation an update on the state of affairs at Eskom. 

That of course was last month's tragic implosion of Stockton Rush's submersible Titan, which was itself on an underwater journey to view the wreck of the Titanic.

In an interview with US channel ABC News, director James Cameron, who brought the world the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and Billy Zane, himself drew parallels between the loss of the submersible and the actual Titanic disaster.

He pointed out that overconfidence in both cases led to disaster.

Hindsight is always 20-20, but invoking the name of the deity with regards to progress in mitigating load shedding was always a bad idea and bound to come back and haunt Ramokgopa.

Something that he should bear in mind when he updates the nation in the future at his regular Sunday morning energy plan updates. Perhaps it would be wise to include a disclaimer at every briefing: "Whatever we say today will likely all be proved entirely wrong in the next few days."

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Previously:

STOCK TAKE | Junk in the trunk? Mantashe trumpets exploration of 'elephant country'

STOCK TAKE | Is corporate SA starting to see light at the end of SA's load shedding tunnel?

STOCK TAKE | Is SA in a recession? Economists say no, but also yes

STOCK TAKE | Eskom's dark and smoggy future could be good news for Thungela's c(ash) pile

STOCK TAKE | New-look mining M&A - and botched Eskom probe is a double disaster

STOCK TAKE | Moti needs more than a rebrand - and where is govt's investment pledge?

STOCK TAKE | Old Mutual minds the (pay) gap

STOCK TAKE | PIC must make a call on RBPlat - and where is Herr Jooste?

STOCK TAKE | Twitter ceases to exist - sort of

STOCK TAKE | Glencore (tries to) go big on copper

STOCK TAKE | Mantashe puts his foot in it, again

STOCK TAKE | Bad timing in SA aviation - and how UNIQ is Shoprite's new store name?

STOCK TAKE | The low Bain threshold - and food prices are out of control

STOCK TAKE | Crypto rises, but for how long, and eye-catching moves at Transaction

STOCK TAKE | Facebook gets leaner, and meaner

STOCK TAKE | Brian Molefe, amateur advocate

STOCK TAKE | A future you don't want to subscribe to

STOCK TAKE | The ANC's Barbra Streisand moment?

STOCK TAKE | Did MPs read the rail White Paper Cabinet adopted, and can Eskom offer some good stats?

STOCK TAKE | Struggling sugar industry eyes Godongwana nervously and Telkom seems to get speedier

STOCK TAKE | The Magda U-turn - and SA's great credit rush

STOCK TAKE | The cost of cybercrime and the state of the captured nation

STOCK TAKE | Eskom's tough lessons for a zombie apocalypse

STOCK TAKE | Spar's flawed thinking

STOCK TAKE | Nampak is boxed in a corner

STOCK TAKE | Steinhoff's unsettling future for shareholders, and Telkom loses its suitors

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