Eskom Draws Criticism Over Logo Redesign Amid Load Shedding Crisis

South Africa's state-owned utility company, Eskom, is currently facing backlash following its decision to release a tender for the redesign of its corporate logo and identity. In the midst of a continuing power supply crisis and rising power costs linked to tender MWP2070CX-R, this move has been criticised by the Democratic Alliance (DA) as extravagant.

Ghaleb Cachalia, the DA's shadow minister of public enterprises, strongly condemned the act as frugal spending. Cachalia highlighted that the refreshing of Eskom's corporate image would not contribute to resolving the critical electricity issues or lessen the financial strain on the consumer base dealing with the sky-rocketing electricity prices.

The redesign tender, laid out in Eskom's formal tender bulletin, seeks proposals for a new company logo and the development of a corporate identity or brand design that will be implemented on an 'as-and-when' required basis over a five-year period. The submission window is set to close on November 2, 2023.

The DA finds Eskom's budget allocation towards a logo redesign while constantly issuing warnings of imminent load shedding to be bewildering. This decision follows after taxpayers have already contributed over R180 billion to bailout Eskom with no visible improvement to the electricity supply noted.

Earlier this year, the government also had to absorb over R254 billion of Eskom’s debt, which has only added to the strain on the taxpayers, as explained by Cachalia. Amidst these controversies, the electricity supply company surprisingly announced a return to load shedding on Sunday after a short nine-day respite due to the need to replenish their emergency reserves in anticipation of the impending cold weather that is expected to surge electricity demand.

The DA has called on the acting CEO of Eskom, Calib Cassim, to withdraw the tender stating that it is not justifiable. The focus, the party insists, should be on managing the current electricity crisis instead of creating a new corporate image.