Page 38 - Dainfern Precinct Living issue 7 2022

Book Reviews

Sabotage: Eskom

under Siege

By Kyle Cowan
After unknown saboteurs toppled a
strategic pylon near Lethabo Power
Station in the Free State in November
2021, almost causing the country to
plunge into stage 5 load-shedding,
Eskom’s Chief Executive Officer, André
de Ruyter, declared: “This was clearly
now an act of sabotage and I think we
can call it as such.” Who was behind
this, and what is their ultimate goal?

Since his appointment in January
2020, De Ruyter has faced intense
opposition from within the power
utility as he attempts to clean up
corruption and return the company Based on exclusive interviews with
to a semblance of its former glory. He De Ruyter, Oberholzer and other key
is not alone. Chief Operating Officer, figures, Sabotage: Eskom under Siege is Power Play: Elon
Jan Oberholzer and other trusted a story of conspiracy and subterfuge
allies in Eskom have also come under at South Africa’s ailing power utility,
intense fire. Amid this onslaught, it has uncovering the endless struggles that Musk, Tesla, and the
become clear that their enemies will threaten the country’s very survival.
take any measures necessary to have
them removed from office. Recommended Price: R280.00 Bet of the Century

By Tim Higgins
Surrounded by Setbacks Elon Musk is among the most
controversial titans of Silicon Valley.
By Thomas Erikson To some, he’s a genius and a visionary
and to others he’s a mercurial huckster.
Not everything goes the way we want Billions of dollars have been gained
it to - the world or people around us and lost on his tweets and his personal
sometimes just spin out of control. So exploits are the stuff of tabloids. But
how do you handle everything life throws for all his outrageous talk of mind-
your way when you’d really prefer to tell uploading and space travel, his most
everyone to get stuffed? audacious vision is the one closest to
the ground: the electric car.
Thomas Erikson will help you turn
adversity into success with the help of When Tesla was founded in the 2000s,
the behavioural model made famous in electric cars were novelties, trotted out
his previous book, Surrounded by Idiots. and thrown on the scrap heap by car
Starting by reminding us that life is as manufacturers for more than a century.
it is, Erikson helps you see that it is in But where most onlookers saw only
fact useless to try to control everything failure, a small band of Silicon Valley
happening around you. engineers and entrepreneurs saw
potential and they pitted themselves
Instead of protesting when life throws against the biggest, fiercest business
you curveballs, focus instead on how rivals in the world, setting out to
to handle them. Just as you keep the make a car that was quicker, sexier,
weeds away from the garden to provide smoother, and cleaner than the
space for amazing flowers, you need to competition.
find an approach to adversity that works
for you and will give you the chance to A story of power, recklessness,
turn everything into success. This book struggle, and triumph, Power Play is
will help you pinpoint the approach that an exhilarating look at how a team of
works for you and will entertain and eccentrics and innovators beat the
empower you in equal measure. odds . . . and changed the future.
Recommended Price: R240.00 Recommended Price: R265.00

36 DPL issue 7 2022