SA is running on diesel, but Zuma's ANC is "not guilty"
11 January 2015
For President Jacob Zuma to say that the ANC must "not feel guilty about the energy issue" because it is Apartheid's fault, is to deny the very reason why South Africa faces an electricity crisis today.
The inequality we witness in our society every day is testament to Apartheid's devastating effect. No one can dispute this.
But the fact is the electricity crisis and the threat of economic shutdown it brings is of the ANC's own making.
South Africa is literally running on diesel today, burning 140 million litres a month to keep the lights on.
And as we speak, Eskom is broke and cannot afford the R1 billion worth of diesel it needs for February. We are on the doorstep of an economic shutdown.
At least one million South Africans have lost their jobs since load-shedding began in 2008, costing our economy R300 billion to date.
Load-shedding is job-shedding. And many hard-working South Africans will continue to lose their jobs as long as those in power deny the crisis we face.
This is a crisis that is ANC-made.
The White Paper on energy policy warned as far back as 1998 that we would face an electricity crisis if we did not act. Had new power stations been built by deadline 5 years ago, there would be no load-shedding today.
President Zuma can no longer use the evil of Apartheid to justify steps his government could have taken to avoid this crisis.
The fact is the ANC has profited directly from delays in building these power stations. We have not forgotten ANC front company Chancellor Houses' stake in the R38.5 billion boiler contract at Medupi.
And there are even bigger profits on the way for President Zuma and the ANC as we are led down the path of a R1 trillion nuclear energy deal, a mega arms deal in the making.
Yes, the first challenge of post-Apartheid South Africa was to expand electricity provision.
The fact that millions of South Africans have been added to the grid is a laudable achievement in the task before us of creating the opportunity for a better life for more South Africans.
But due to bad planning we are now in the position that SA cannot provide secure electricity supply. This is a basic responsibility of government.
Those in power have no plans for today's challenge of growing the economy and creating jobs. If the President and government do not feel responsible for this crisis, then it proves yet again that the ANC is fundamentally incapable of effectively governing South Africa.
That is why we are on the verge of an economic shutdown, and risk our country's rating being downgraded to junk status.
In the midst of this crisis President Zuma says he is "not guilty".
South Africans are demanding solutions, not denialism from those in power.
There is an urgent need to give independent power producers the opportunity to contribute electricity to the grid.
We also need to accelerate the Medupi and Kusile projects, while advancing the rollout of renewable power projects and a licencing regime for natural gas exploration.
In doing so, President Zuma needs to abandon the Russian nuclear deal that will take a decade to provide any power and force future generations of South Africans to pay the debt.
This is what South Africans need to hear from the President when he delivers his State of the Nation Address in February if we are to avoid an economic shutdown.
Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane MP, DA Parliamentary Leader, January 11 2015
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