It is worth noting that President Cyril Ramaphosa has decided against making the annual pilgrimage to Davos and instead will stay home to try and work out some solution to the energy crisis we are in.
It is the minimum required action undeserving of praise.
It is perhaps best that Ramaphosa did not go to the Swiss ski resort town this time around. SA would be a hard sell to anyone looking at an investment destination, unless such potential investors are in the business of providing alternative power.
SA is in terrible shape. The cost of the Eskom blackouts is increasing daily. The economy that was hardly growing is set to nosedive as a result of an ever-increasing number of hours businesses and households are expected to make do without power.
As all this is unfolding, the last two presidents, Ramaphosa and his predecessor Jacob Zuma, are slugging it out in court over a legal technicality. It tells us all we need to know about what the governing ANC sees as a priority: which of their factions should be in charge of the state.
SA needs to see the president take the electricity crisis as seriously as he does the court action against his nemesis. Lives and livelihoods are at stake.
SA can hardly afford public relations gimmicks and platitudes. We do not need more statements and expressions of concerns. We most certainly do not need to hear the president express regret, as he did last week on the news that the National Electricity Regulator had given Eskom permission to increase its tariff by 18,65%.
It was in December 2007 when former president Thabo Mbeki first publicly acknowledged that his government had been wrong to heed concerns by Eskom management that the country faced an energy crisis if nothing was done soonest.
Nearly 15 years later, spare us another speech or photo opportunity Mr President. You must tell us what you and your government are doing, not what you are planning to do.
Not going to Davos is not helpful to anyone if it is merely for optics. It only makes a difference if the president spends the time here finding and directing the right people to do what is required today to return SA to a path of reliable energy supply.
We need answers, and power, now.
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