While State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are crashing and burning all around us, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe’s big hairy audacious goal for overcoming the failures of our largest SOE, Eskom, is . . . wait for it: to set up another power-generation SOE as a backup to Eskom! Not only would such a move divert attention and resources away from addressing other pressing societal priorities, but it would also distract from and crowd out genuine solutions to the power crisis.