Late last year, in September to be exact, former president Kgalema Motlanthe, now chairperson of the ANC’s electoral committee, cautioned the governing party’s leadership saying South Africans were fast losing patience with the current government.
“From day one you are in doubt as to what your real mandate is because you would not be sure whether you are serving at the behest and pleasure of the general membership, or it is thanks to money, or it is thanks to your network or patronage or organisers. The possibility exists that South Africans will move on. Once the ANC is renewed, it will have to catch up,” forewarned Motlanthe.
This week has been unprecedented in terms of the degree South Africans from all corners are prepared to do is to show their disgust at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government and Eskom for the never-subsiding rolling blackouts besetting the country.
Ramaphosa cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, to confront the matter of the deterioration of economic prospects due to lack of power head-on, but absolutely nothing has come of his staying put. Stage 6 loadshedding is still very much with us and there is no respite.
The Ramaphosa government and Eskom made international news headlines following the president’s cancelation of his trip. From CNN to Al Jazeera, Nelson Mandela’s country was being dissected and repudiated for lack of planning and execution in in so far aspower generation goes.
Images of a pitch-black Johannesburg, the economic hub of the country and southern Africa, were flighted for all to see how the country is becoming a failed state. Corruption was the key word, with television anchors astonishingly asking whether governance has degenerated to such an extent the country cannot keep the lights on. I am afraid that’s the situation, and that is how we roll in Mzansi.
That said, the people of South Africa are gearing up to take to the streets. Others have already embarked on their civil duty, protesting to the Ramaphosa government, voicing their abhorrence at the way Eskom has been allowed to deteriorate over the years, threatening their livelihood.
We have witnessed how business has been impacted. No one is spared, big or small, micro, or middle, every facet of business is not spared. The backbone of our economy is suffering, leading to enterprises without the means to survive loadshedding having to fold.
South Africans have come to realise the government does not care a hoot. Frustrations are being vented by all and sundry; from political parties to unions and civil society organisations over the prolonged Stage 6 blackouts affecting the day-to-day lives of all. Once again, no one is spared.
The people of this country are asking themselves: what results have Ramaphosa’s engagement with the leadership of Eskom and with those heading the National Energy Crisis Committee (Neccom) yielded? What has come of those meetings? Everyone is seeking answers from Ramaphosa and Eskom, and as things stand, there are no answers to pacify the people of South Africa.
The ongoing blackouts, outages and electricity cut-offs sparked violent protests.
In some parts of the country this week, angry community members in Phoenix in Durban, Boksburg in Ekurhuleni and Kroonstad in the northern Free State, barricading roads with rocks and burning tyres protesting the lack of electricity in their areas.
Are we heading for the worst?
Before Motlanthe’s warning, former president Thabo Mbeki in July last year also pointed a wagging finger at the rulers of this land, warning of a looming Arab Spring-type of an uprising against the ANC. “One of my fears, comrades, is that we are going to have our own version of the Arab Spring. Remember what happened in Tunisia; it was
because problems were brewing under the surface, and the anarchy just needed a little spark,” said Mbeki.
“I am saying that one of my fears is that the same thing will happen to us. You can’t have so many people unemployed, so many people living in poverty, faced with lawlessness and faced with corrupt leadership and not expect the situation to not one day explode.”
Eskom’s blackouts could become that spark as ordinary South Africans are prepared to risk whatever gains made so far and take to the streets, to even go to court to express their revulsion at how the government and Eskom have failed to deal with the power supply crisis.
In darkness we seek to survive, but with no reprieve the situation could boil over.
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