DA leader John Steenhuisen has challenged President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe to remedy the controversial issue of electricity tariff hikes.
This after Ramaphosa said during his closing address at the ANC’s Free State provincial conference at the weekend that he had asked Eskom to suspend the implementation of the 18.65% tariff hike that is due to take effect from April.
Steenhuisen said the president must show Mantashe the door if he is committed to stopping the implementation of the hike, because he [Mantashe] is an obstacle to the much-needed reform of the country’s energy sector.
“Whereas he claims his ‘hands are tied’ when it comes to electricity price hikes, they certainly aren’t tied when it comes to several other crucial interventions, the first of which must be firing his useless, obstructive, corrupt, socialist energy minister,” said Steenhuisen.
“Without meaningful reform, South Africans will be paying more for electricity either way, whether through price increases or by taking on more Eskom debt.”
The DA leader alleges that the highly contested tariff hike forms part of funds needed for the governing party’s “incompetence and corruption”, further insinuating that tax and these hikes benefit the ruling party.
“President Ramaphosa must not take South Africans for fools. We all know that either electricity price hikes or taxes are needed to pay for the ANC’s incompetence and corruption, and that the only way to bring real relief is to deal with the incompetence and corruption.”
Steenhuisen has made a list of actions that could remedy the situation at Eskom. Among these he listed political interference, stating that Ramaphosa needs to stop it by replacing Mantashe and [Public Enterprises Minister] Pravin Gordan.
He added that the president needs to reappoint competent engineers, ramp up security to manage saboteurs, and declare a state of disaster at Eskom.
“Declare a ring-fenced state of disaster in order to exempt the energy sector from all obstacles to efficient spending and rapid decision-making such as localisation and race-based procurement and employment legislation.
“Of course, if president Ramaphosa really cared about the suffering of South African households and businesses, he needs to end the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment which has produced an incapable state without democratic checks and balances, and which has enabled corruption and state capture on a grand scale.
“President Ramaphosa could have instructed all this a long time ago. South Africa didn’t have to get to this level of crisis.
“This is why the DA was in court yesterday [Monday] and today, to have cadre deployment declared unconstitutional and illegal, as per Chief Justice [Raymond] Zondo’s findings. And it is why in 2024 South Africans are going to take back their power by firing the corrupt ANC, he said.
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