DA delivers match-sticks to Mabuza’s office symbolising the crisis the ANC government is ignoring

6 May 2019

Today the Democratic alliance (DA) delivered burnt matchsticks in front of Deputy President David Mabuza’s office symbolising the lived realities of ordinary South Africans who have been left without power due to rampant corruption and mismanagement at Eskom. Several weeks ago, the country was subjected to a week of stage 4 blackouts which was a result of the lack of maintenance and looting at the state enterprise by the ANC government.

The Deputy President was put in charge of fixing the electricity crisis when he was appointed to lead a special cabinet committee which was supposed to look at the crisis at Eskom and submit regular reports on what actions needed to be taken to secure long term energy supply.

Since then, a bandage has been applied on the gushing wound which is the Eskom crisis. The ANC government has been burning through diesel reserves in an effort to keep the lights on until after the 8th of May.

Eskom’s financial black hole keeps getting darker and deeper, it may need a R100-billion a year over and above the R23-billion a year it has already secured. Treasury expects this to run for at least 10 years. Instead of finding a sustainable solution to the problems at Eskom, the ANC government is burning through diesel at an alarming rate which costs over R100 million per month.

This crisis remains a massive threat to the country as winter is coming and Eskom will not be able to keep the lights on. Eskom engineers have confirmed that they no longer have control of the system and that the collapse of the grid is imminent.
Just this weekend, reports indicated that Energy Minister, Jeff Radebe, is trying to secure a Sudanese oil deal which is not costed and has not been taken through the necessary supply chain systems. This government has no plan to fix Eskom, the only plan they have is how to loot the public purse dry.

The DA will also continue to request transparency regarding the Chinese loans that have been secured by the government. Chinese development agencies have controversially ended up owning public facilities after enchanting vulnerable countries worldwide into a debt trap. We cannot allow South Africa to fall for a trap like this because the ANC government is fumbling.
South Africans must carefully use their vote to cut the ANC’s powers by voting for a party that has credible solutions to solve the country’s growing energy crisis. That party is the DA. We have long called for an efficient and transparent energy sector that offers cheap electricity to the benefit of all South Africans

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, 6 May 2019