In the past two decades Eskom has symbolised South Africa’s failings, rather than its successes. In the 2000s the government of Thabo Mbeki delayed building new plants, mostly because of overcapacity. By 2008, when this capacity was used up, Eskom started load-shedding. Two huge coal-fired power stations were meant to fill the gap, adding 4,800MW of power to the grid. But construction is running years late and about three times over budget, says Chris Yelland, an independent analyst.

在過去的20年里，埃斯科姆公司象征著南非的失敗，而不是成功。2000年，塔博?姆貝基的政府推遲了新工廠的建設(shè)，主要原因是產(chǎn)能過剩。到2008年，當(dāng)這個容量用完時，埃斯科姆公司開始減少負載。為了填補這一缺口，兩座大型燃煤發(fā)電站將向電網(wǎng)新增4800兆瓦的電力。但獨立分析師克里斯?耶蘭(Chris Yelland)表示，建設(shè)工作拖延了數(shù)年，超出預(yù)算約三倍。

One reason is that some of Eskom’s bosses have spent more time stealing than managing. Cronies of Mr Zuma and his patrons, the Gupta brothers, are alleged to have siphoned off tens of billions of rand in inflated or irregular contracts. The utility sells less electricity than it did in 2007 but spends three times as much on employees and five times as much on coal (though inflation accounts for some of this).

原因之一是，埃斯科姆公司的一些老板花在“偷吃”上的時間比花在管理上的時間還要多。祖瑪先生的密友和他的庇護人古普塔兄弟(Gupta brothers) 被控通過夸大或不正規(guī)的合同侵吞了數(shù)百億蘭特。與2007年相比，這家公司的電力銷售減少了，但在員工身上的花費是現(xiàn)在的三倍，在煤炭上的花費是現(xiàn)在的五倍(盡管通脹是其中的一部分原因)。

詞匯

Crony/密友；好朋友

Patrons/贊助人；庇護人

siphon off/吮吸

Inflation/膨脹；通貨膨脹；夸張；自命不凡

Eskom’s structure makes matters worse. The utility is “vertically integrated”, meaning that it has a critical role in the three parts of electricity supply: generation (power plants), transmission (the national grid) and distribution (the final power lines). Most rich countries have ditched this monolithic model, with good reason. It blocks competition, reduces transparency and deflects accountability.

埃斯科姆公司的體系讓事情變得更糟。該公司是“垂直一體化”的，這意味著它在電力供應(yīng)的三個部分中發(fā)揮著關(guān)鍵作用:發(fā)電(發(fā)電廠)、輸電(國家電網(wǎng))和配電(最終的電力線路)。大多數(shù)富裕國家都有充分的理由拋棄了這種單一的模式。它有礙競爭，降低透明度，偏離責(zé)任制。

詞匯

Transparency/透明，透明度

On February 7th Mr Ramaphosa said that Eskom would be broken up. It was the seventh time that a president has used his State of the Nation Address to make such a pledge. But this time may be different because there is a clear alternative to the coal-dominated monolith—a market-based model that is open to renewable energy.

2月7日，拉馬福薩先生說，埃斯科姆公司將被瓜分。這是美國總統(tǒng)第七次在國情咨文中做出這樣的承諾。但這一次可能有所不同，因為在原有的煤炭一支獨大的能源市場下有了明確的替代方案——一個基于面向可再生能源的新的市場。

詞匯

State of the Nation Address/國情咨文

Pledge/保證，誓言

Monolith/整塊石料；龐然大物