A good week for Mteto Nyati
The decision by electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to give Eskom chair Mteto Nyati three more years preserves continuity after a turnaround that has resulted in 490-plus days without power cuts and an energy availability factor near 70% (below 53% for most of 2023). Keeping an incumbent who knows the machinery makes sense as Eskom faces crippling municipal arrears and falling sales. South Africa needs this recovery to outlast him.
A bad week for Benjamin Netanyahu
Say what you like about Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, it can’t be easy cruising Manhattan delis while accused of a Palestinian genocide. Last week, he labelled dozens of nations “moral cowards” for walking out on his UN speech. Comedians had a feast. Britain’s version of Saturday Night Live said he’d “made the podium his own … and then the podium next to him, and all the chairs, and some of the benches — but in a sense, weren’t they always his?”
