It is time for all South Africans to take the power back

29 March 2019

Fellow South Africans,

As we stand here, a human catastrophe is playing out in our neighbouring countries as they battle with the aftermath of a deadly cyclone. Please hold the people of Mozambique in your prayers, as well as those affected in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

I would like to thank each and every South African – military and civilian – who has come to the aid of these stricken people. You are all heroes, and I wish you much strength as you continue your critical work there in aid of our brothers and sisters in need.

Fellow South Africans, we gather here today in the midst of a national crisis that could affect the future of our country. If we are to overcome our energy crisis, it will take a combined effort from all role players – business, labour, government, NGO’s and regular citizens.

We have to act as a unified Team One SA. We can’t have everyone talking about different things. We must pool our efforts and resources, and we must all be part of the same solution. That is the only way we will beat this.

The alternative will be disastrous for us as a nation. Already the effects of the recent power cuts have decimated small businesses and have threatened critical services to communities across South Africa.

I have visited many towns and businesses in the past week, and the stories they tell of these power cuts are very distressing indeed. I spoke to the owners of a manufacturing plant who told me they have already lost too many working hours and cannot pay wages. They will most likely shut down.

I spoke to staff at a hospital who told me that they cannot run critical equipment like ventilators when they only have 30 minutes of backup power available.

I spoke to teaching staff who are worried about children returning from holiday next week. They don’t know how continued power cuts will affect the teaching programmes. I can assure you, there will be no fourth industrial revolution by candle light.

Without power, municipalities can’t pump water to high-lying areas. Sewage treatment plants can’t operate. And if Eskom collapses, it will have a profound effect on our banking sector and financial institutions.

This energy crisis threatens the wellbeing of our people and the interests of our nation. And it happened thanks to the looting and corruption of our government and their cronies. It happened because our government, once again, put its own greed ahead of the need of the people they are meant to serve.

So today we have come to the seat of national government to tell them this truth: The power in our democracy lies with the people here on the outside, not the protected politicians there on the inside.

We are here to protest the electricity crisis that was entirely created by the ANC government that sits inside this building.

We are here to protest the high cost of living that was brought about by the corruption and mismanagement of our economy by the ANC government that sits inside this building.

We are here to protest how the President, his son, the ANC Top Six, and many others – some of whom sit inside this building – were bought and bribed by Bosasa. How our country was sold out for a braai pack, some beers and a Louis Vuitton handbag.

It is time to take back our power and remove this corrupt ANC government from office on 8 May 2019. We have come too far and sacrificed too much as a nation to let them trample our hard-won democracy and disrespect our Constitution.

Unless all the power in our democracy rests with the citizens and not with government, our Constitution with all its rights and protections will not be worth the paper it is printed on. Because that is the very foundation of our democracy: The power belongs to the people.

But something happened here that upset this balance and subverted our democracy. It is the same thing we have seen over and over again on this continent: The liberation movement that became the governing party convinced the people to give up their power and hand it over to them.

I met this week with some of my fellow African opposition leaders – Tendai Biti from Zimbabwe, as well as Hakainde Hichilema from Zambia – and they confirmed that this happened in their home countries too. Right across Africa, nations have been betrayed by liberation movements that found themselves suddenly seduced by wealth and power.

These liberation movements said: We struggled for your freedom, and now you owe us your loyalty for life. And once this happens, there can be no more accountability to the people. Governments that think they are entitled to rule forever, and that people owe them their vote forever, end up serving only themselves. They end up like the ANC.

We no longer have a government. We have an organisation of criminals who have taken the power from the people, and now use this power to enrich themselves. This must end. We must liberate ourselves from our liberators. South Africans must take their power back.

The massive crisis we are now facing with our electricity supply is all due to the looting of the ANC government. The incompetent boards at Eskom were put there so that ANC cadres could steal. Coal contracts were awarded to ANC and Gupta connected companies. Contracts like the boilers at Medupi and Kusile were awarded to ANC connected companies.

All our State Owned Enterprises were looted over the past two decades to the point where they cannot operate without massive bailouts, but the worst of all was Eskom. It is estimated that up to R140 billion was stolen during the construction of just Medupi and Kusile.

This latest episode of Stage 4 load-shedding is just the beginning. When it starts again – and it will start again – the job losses as small businesses close their doors will bring our economy to its knees and bring despair to thousands of families who will lose their only income.

But job losses are just part of the crisis. If we stay in Stage 3 or 4 load-shedding – or if we move on to Stage 5 or 6 – we won’t be able to avoid the failure of critical infrastructure. Communities will go without water. Sewage treatment plants won’t operate. Hospitals and clinics will turn patients away. This is the future we are heading towards if we don’t immediately change our course.

And believe me, it is possible to immediately change our course. The DA has published a list of steps we can take right away that will avert a national energy crisis:

- We must start by rejecting the pressure the unions are applying to government to maintain Eskom’s monopoly, and allowing Independent Power Producers to start selling power to the national grid.

- We must immediately halt the build on the last two units at the Kusile power station. Kusile and Medupi have already cost hundreds of billions more than was budgeted and they still don’t operate properly because of critical design flaws. It is estimated that almost R140 billion was stolen from Eskom over the past decade relating to the construction of these two stations. We need to plug this hole straight away and focus on independent producers.

- We must also allow Eskom to buy its coal from any source, so that it can ensure the best quality and price.

- We must immediately prioritise the maintenance of all ageing power stations, because when they start shutting down due to lack of maintenance we will quickly go from controlled load-shedding to uncontrolled blackouts.

- Government must instruct PetroSA to supply Eskom with diesel at a tax-free cost until we have survived this crisis.

- Government must also immediately allow well-functioning metros and municipalities to start purchasing their electricity directly from independent producers, and not solely from Eskom.

- We need to stop exporting electricity to our neighbours right away until we are able to meet our own demand and stabilise our grid.

- We must reaffirm all engineering and maintenance employees at Eskom as an “essential service” and prohibit them from entering into strike action.

- Municipalities must install major smart meters right away, which will allow them to collect electricity revenue accurately and on time.

- And finally, we must make it our urgent priority to appoint skilled senior management at power station level. One of the biggest threats to Eskom was the replacement of skilled management with deployed cadres, and this needs to be reversed as soon as possible.

These are the things a responsible, caring government would have already done. But we don’t have such a government. We have the ANC. And we are in this position because the ANC is no longer accountable to any of us. They think they have the right to rule for life, and so they do whatever they want. And while they are enriching themselves from every state-owned company, every government department, every province and municipality, life for ordinary South Africans is getting harder and harder.

The ANC elite wouldn’t know this though. They live the good life. They have VIP protection. They have blue light convoys that buzz them through traffic. They send their children to private schools and they go to private hospitals.

They wouldn’t know about the cost of living that has become too much to bear for most South Africans.

They wouldn’t know about fuel price increases and what this does to the cost of transport and the cost of food.

They wouldn’t know about being unemployed in an economy that simply cannot create more work because it has been destroyed by bad policy and non-stop corruption.

And as bad as the cost of living is now, it is just going to get worse. On the 1st of April many of the new Budget’s effects will kick in as taxes and fuel levies get hiked up. Then poor South Africans will be squeezed even harder, while the people responsible for their suffering go on as if everything is okay.

But it’s not okay. It can never be okay that almost 10 million South Africans do not have work. It can never be okay that 4 out of every ten households do not have a single job. It can never be okay that half our population live below the poverty line.

This situation has to change, but it can only change if you say so. It is time to restore the rightful balance in our democracy, and put the people in charge of the politicians. It is time to take the power back.

Fellow South Africans, the man you need to take it up with sits in an office inside these buildings here. The buck stops with him. Cyril Ramaphosa is not something separate from the rest of the ANC. He is the ANC and the ANC is him.

And if you don’t believe me, just have a look at the recent testimony presented in the Zondo Commission into State Capture, where we are told Bosasa paid R75 million a year in bribes to the ANC in exchange for contracts. We are told tens of millions were paid to the ANC’s Top 6, of which President Ramaphosa has been a member for years. And we are told the ANC’s War Room at the Bosasa head office was built to make the corruption probe by the Special Investigating Unit go away.

The president’s son, Andile, has now admitted that the corrupt Bosasa paid him R2 million since his father became president. And we know the same corrupt Bosasa gave Cyril Ramaphosa himself half a million Rand, and tried to hide this payment in typical money laundering fashion.

This is no different to the corrupt Jacob Zuma and his son and nephew. It is no different to the corrupt Ace Magashule and his children. If we’re going to be angry at them, then we must be angry at the Ramaphosa’s too. Because they are one and the same.

And while our lights have been going out and our economy has been grinding to a halt – while ordinary South Africans have been struggling more and more to put food on the table – the man who sits inside this building and his son have been laundering dirty Bosasa money, and his entire organisation has been growing rich.

We need to be angry, fellow South Africans, because this is our country they have stolen from us. It doesn’t belong to them and their wealthy friends and family. It belongs to all of us. But let me tell you, there is only one kind of anger that works in this situation. It’s not the anger of protests. It’s not the anger of violence. It’s not the anger of burning and looting. The only anger that works is expressed in your vote.

You will never have a better opportunity than the 8th of May to take your power back. If you don’t, then your next opportunity will only come in five years’ time, and that may be too late.

I have said this over and over again, to thousands of South Africans across the length and breadth of our country, but it is such an important point that I will repeat it again here: In a democracy you never, ever pledge your vote to any party for life. No matter what they promise you and no matter what they did in the past. Because if you do, you’ve given up the only power you have.

You lend your vote to a party. And you let them know that you will take it right back if they let you down. That is how you keep the balance in a democracy. And that is how you ensure that your leaders remain humble and accountable.

That is a lesson that this ANC government has never learnt. It is time we taught them.

Let us use the power of our votes to fire this ANC government.

Let us put in its place a government staffed by the best possible people for the job.

Let us overcome this energy crisis together, and let us put a job in every home.

There will always be those who say it can’t be done – that the ANC government can’t be removed without major disruption and crisis.

This is simply not true. South Africans have always shown that they can do what needs to be done.

We became a democracy in 1994 without the bloodshed and disruption that many had predicted.

We put on a world-class World Cup in 2010 without the chaos that many had predicted.

And we will replace this failed ANC government without the crisis that some are predicting. Because that is who we are as a nation.

It is time to take our power back!

Issued by Mmusi Maimane, Leader, Democratic Alliance, 29 March 2019