Logie Naidoo|Published
I AM Logie Naidoo, and I served the people of eThekwini Municipality for many years under the ANC. I was deputy mayor and speaker for two terms. I believed then, as I believe now, that the ANC was the vehicle through which South Africa would realise its ideals of a non-racial, non-sexist, free and democratic society.
We must denounce any form of racism, sexism, xenophobia, tribalism, factionalism and sectionalism, as well as any threat to our constitutional democracy. Belief without honesty is just nostalgia, and nostalgia has never powered a single turbine of societal transformation and redevelopment.
The Mandela years were magical, not because they were perfect, but because they were purposeful. The Mbeki years were stable, not because they were without fault, but because they were competent. We had a plan, and we executed it.
In 2001, the Financial Times named Eskom the best power company in the world. A decade into democracy, our national utility was a global benchmark. Many of our state-owned entities were of a world-class standard. That was not an accident; it was the result of strong and ethical leadership.
Then something broke. I was in the room, and I saw the arrogance. We did not see what others saw. We were in denial, and our denial came at the cost of our own credibility. The tsunami of malfeasance set in. The utility that had won awards was stripped for parts. People who were supposed to protect it were looting it. We, the leaders of the ANC, were in denial. We blamed one another, and some of our ethical leaders were isolated and removed from office. Meanwhile, the lights went out.
The Zondo Commission told us what many of us already knew. Eskom lost over R14 billion to state capture. More than R57 billion in public funds were tainted by the Gupta enterprise and its plundering of our state-owned entities.
Executives were suspended, boards were dismantled, and a once-proud utility was stripped to a carcass to be looted. In 2023, South Africa experienced 329 days of load-shedding. Our economy bled, and our people suffered.
Then something remarkable happened, and this is where the Eskom story becomes a blueprint for renewal.
Pravin Gordhan went into Eskom like a pit bull. He restructured the organisation and initiated the legal separation of Eskom into Generation, Transmission and Distribution entities. He appointed Mteto Nyati as chair, and the renewal process began at Eskom.
The ANC has done much, but its leaders find it tedious and are sometimes too humble to promote their achievements. Renewal must be understood in the context of Eskom’s renewal. It requires leaders with a high emotional quotient, integrity and a commitment to servant leadership.
I see the ANC at a low ebb in the political cycle of troughs and peaks. The ANC is aiming for an upward trajectory that will see Eskom’s story become the story of South Africa and of an ANC undergoing its own metamorphosis through purposeful change.
The Eskom case study is important because it shows that renewal is possible. Pravin Gordhan showed us that. He appointed the right leadership, and he broke the back of the corrupt camel.
Then Kgosientsho Ramokgopa came in as electricity minister, and he and his team performed what seemed like magic. The numbers tell the story. From April 2024 to March 2025, Eskom implemented load-shedding for just 13 days, compared with 329 days in the previous year. By December 2024, South Africa had clocked 272 days without rolling blackouts. The Energy Availability Factor improved from 54.55% to 61%. Diesel savings reached R16.51 billion year on year. In 2025, Eskom returned to profitability after eight years and reported a profit of R23.9 billion before tax.
Now the ANC must learn from Eskom. Renewal is not merely a slogan; it is a discipline.
Renewal requires leaders with a high emotional quotient who can listen and absorb criticism without becoming defensive. It requires leaders with integrity who understand that public service is a trust, not a transaction. It also requires servant leadership as the foundation, with leaders measuring success not by the perks of office but by the lives they improve.
The renewal process is about re-energising the ANC. It is not the end of the story, but the inflection point in the reinvigoration of the liberation movement.
The decline is not linear, and neither is recovery. Eskom did not recover because of one person or one policy. It recovered because the conditions were created for competence to triumph over capture and for integrity to outlast impunity. The same must now happen in the ANC.
Here is where the ANC is ahead of the game. It is the first to reach a low point in the process of change. It will rise like the mythical phoenix emerging from the fire. As it rises, others will experience similar setbacks, and they, too, will gravitate towards the bottom of the S-curve. By then, the ANC will be on a positive upward trajectory, reaching the top curve of change.
The ANC has the opportunity to show the world what renewal looks like when a movement confronts its own failures and chooses to rebuild.
The story of Eskom can become the story of South Africa: the story of an institution that was brought to its knees and then, through purposeful leadership, rose again. It is a deep, structural and painful transformation.
I have not given up because I have seen what happens when a broken institution decides to fix itself, and Eskom taught me that. Now the ANC must learn the same lesson. Renewal is not a destination; it is a daily choice, and the choice is ours.
The local government elections on November 4 are an important part of our renewal process. We must elect quality candidates to fix local government and improve our cities and towns. All people deserve a better life.
Local government is an important sphere of government and is at the coalface of governance, where people interact with government representatives. It is the hands and feet of government, where service delivery takes place. Councillors must be servant leaders, accountable to communities and committed to putting people first — Batho Pele. They must be people-centred and responsive to their constituents.
The ANC’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) policies have been lauded all over the world, even by Mayor Mamdani of New York City. The provision of a free house, electricity and water, zero-rated services and refuse removal has not been implemented anywhere else in the world.
The Indigent Policy is intended for the poorest of the poor in South Africa. The ANC has promoted home ownership by giving away council homes and flats for free.
The ANC will fix the water issue and the ageing infrastructure in our cities and towns. In KwaZulu-Natal, the Umkomaas Dam and the southern aqueduct will go a long way towards easing the burden of water supply in our region.
In these local government elections, think about whom you voted for and whether they served you sincerely. But vote for change and delivery.
**Logie Naidoo is a former Deputy Mayor and Speaker of eThekwini Metro Municipality and currently a provincial leader of the ANC.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or post.co.za