Scores of ANC members gathered outside Luthuli House in Johannesburg on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent DA protestors from reaching the party’s headquarters.
The march, which began at the Mary Fitzgerald Square, was lead by DA leaders John Steenhuisen, Siviwe Gwarube, Kevin Mileham and Tania Campbell, who planned to deliver a memorandum of demands at Luthuli House.
In the memorandum, the DA is calling for the ANC to end loadshedding and find a feasible solution to the country’s energy crisis.
Gwarube said before the march that they were headed to the ANC headquarters because that is “where the problem begins”. According to Gwarube and Mileham, Luthuli House is “the original scene of the crime [energy crisis, cadre deployment and corruption]”.
Ghaleb Cachalia, DA spokesperson for public enterprises, said: “The ANC has broken Eskom and Eskom has broken the country. Who will invest in a country without electricity. They have tried to bury our hope, they have tried to bury our dreams but we will not be buried.”
Although the DA called on its members to be disciplined during the march, the opposition party’s approach angered ANC members who said the march was being directed to the wrong place.
Lucky Bhengu, an Umkhonto we Sizwe veteran, said: “We are not protesting, we are out here to defend out workplace, if these people want electricity, they must go to Eskom.”
Yamkela Methuse, member of ANC Youth League in Boland, Western Cape, said: “Instead of them going to Eskom or the Union Buildings, they come to our office … We won’t be accepting any memorandum from them, the only people that will accept the memorandum is government. We are not government, we are just an organisation that is leading.”
The ANC members later declared that they have “won the first round”, after the DA failed to deliver the memorandum.
An ANC protestor said: “They said they are coming to Luthuli house, are they here? We are ready for them if they come. This is a revolutionary house, not Eskom. If they don’t know where Eskom is, we can accompany them.
“If it’s us they want, we are here, we are ready for them.”
Watch exclusive Sunday World video content
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
