Anixas does not provide enough energy

Dear sir,
I read a report on the Anixas Diesel Power Station and would like to comment on what the Minister of Mines and Energy, Isak Katali said about the future of the Namibian power situation as well as what the CEO of Erongo Red, Gerhard Coeln had to say.
Let me help the minister to get his facts right. The price of electricity quadruplet since the distributor, Erongo Red, took the supply of power over in the Erongo region in 2004. How dare he speak of the ‘cheap electricity over the last decade’? Where did he live during the last decade?
Concerned people repeatedly criticised his ministry over the last few years. The minister  refused to listen. He still does and, still stubbornly, refuses to discuss the mess his ministry created – what is there to hide?
There is still no change; Anixas is barely able to supply 10% of the future needs of new mines (200MW), as Mr Coeln said.
It is foolish to put the nation’s money and future on the Kudu Gas project because, over three and a half decades, the development did not move forward. It was foolish to put our money and hope on buying foreign energy in a region in which energy is in extreme short supply. Would it be foolish to guess that nincompoops lead us and plan our future? The bare facts tell us of the blunders made. Are those in which we trusted ninnies?
Or can it be that behind this, we will, eventually, find a huge self-enrichment scheme of people in the highest offices?
In the meantime the president – if he is truly a man of integrity like we still think he is – should pull the emergency brake! He has to clean up his cabinet; the time is ripe for that! He has to save this country from a ‘Namibian spring’ by acting immediately. We have to urge him to exchange foolishness with excellence in his cabinet. We can do without the yes-men, without those we see as ‘conmen’ and those unable to do a proper, honest job; we can do without those merely filling a ‘quota’ and those forever preaching without delivering. All these ‘flops’ are busy shattering our dream of freedom and personal prosperity.
We have to put our people first and the leaders have to serve the people. The people deserve affordable electricity and they deserve many other things too. The misery of the majority has to end. It should no longer be the case that the needs of the majority get so shamefully abused, and that, at the same time, the leaders and a small ‘fat cat’ minority get fatter by the day – that is not right, that is not good governance and none of the freedom fighters ever fought for that purpose!
‘Ndeshi’ J. Franke-Beukes
Henties Bay