The termination of the electricity state of disaster and the withdrawal of a poorly worded Gazette notice exempting Eskom from having to include details of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure from its financial statements offered yet more evidence of the current low levels of capacity within government. While the Eskom exemption will be reinstated with wording that cannot be so easily thrown out if legally challenged, this latest flip-flopping did not inspire any confidence, nor did the Electricity Minister’s first formal media conference where he presented ‘options’ that contradicted several Cabinet-approved policies.