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Bobby Godsell's mandate as chairperson of the Eskom Board was to turn around one of the most poorly performing public utilities in the country. But his first attempt to remove the biggest stumbling block - CEO Jacob Maroga - has been met with the usual racial ranting and ravings of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) and the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA). There is a common pattern to most ANCYL and YCLSA statements - their complete disregard for the facts. The facts are that if Jacob Maroga is to be removed by Eskom's board it will be because of his incompetence and not because of some racist agenda on Godsell's or the Democratic Alliance's part as the ANCYL and YCLSA claim. Maroga did little to tackle the problems at Eskom. Need we remind the ANCYL and the YCLSA that it was Maroga's decision to fire international energy consultant, Susan Olsen, who warned that Eskom's coal procurement practices were placing electricity supplies in jeopardy? Maroga didn't act on Olsen's advice, and ultimately, South Africa endured a period of exceptionally costly load shedding. There is no evidence that Maroga did anything to address the serious problems with the Medupi power plant either. It appears the ANCYL and YCLSA just celebrate mediocrity instead of excellence. But as always with the ANCYL and YCLSA it's as if facts are irrelevant. This, of course, has implications for the nature of public debate - if public discourse is reduced simply to rhetoric, it becomes nothing more than a façade for the imposition of power. The ANCYL and YCLSA's latest statements address absolutely nothing within the scope of their mandates. But this is a common pattern with both the ANCYL and the YCLSA. Whether it be telling the Vice-Chancellor of a university what to do (and threatening his life), or clarifying the employment status of the CEO at a public utility, the ANCYL and YCLSA see no problem stepping into that breach. The ANCYL and YCLSA are not about the youth and the problems they face. For them it's all about power, who controls what and which faction in the ANC has the most influence; and so they use any public platform to make their case. Between ‘the left', Trevor Manuel, Jacob Zuma, the ANCYL, the ANC NEC and the Cabinet - South Africa's power structure is starting to look less like a pyramid and more like a spider's web.