DA welcomes pension fund managers’ rejection of ANC plans to invest pensions in Eskom

16 January 2019

The Democratic Alliance welcomes the fact that pension fund managers have rejected the ANC’s plans to channel private pension funds to Eskom.

Eskom poses the biggest threat to the economy and is drowning in debt. Yet the ANC wants to use the hard-earned pensions of ordinary South Africans to rescue this already sinking ship, along with other ailing state-owned entities (SOE).

The power utility is rated at sub-investment grade which means that investors have lost all confidence in Eskom, leaving the utility struggling to borrow money. It therefore came as no surprise that the ANC government is again looking at ordinary South Africans to foot the bill for its failures in managing the SOE.

This desperate move by the ANC is similar to the tactics employed by the National Party during apartheid and it is evident that the ANC has no plans to turn things around.

The DA has time and again called on the ANC to engage with us on our turnaround strategies for the ailing utility. It is clear that the DA is the only party with a plan to fix Eskom, unlike the failing ANC.

The DA’s plan for Eskom was introduced in our ISMO Bill which seeks to break Eskom into two entities: one for generation and the other dedicated to power transmission. The power-generating division will compete with its independent counterparts on an equal footing, ensuring efficiency, stability and competitive prices.

Yet, instead of fixing Eskom and engaging with the DA, the ANC has decided to make South Africans pay by coming after their pension funds, all this while we are plunged into darkness.

The ANC under Cyril Ramaphosa seems determined to nationalise everything including land ownership, health care, the Reserve Bank and now pensions. Hard working South Africans should not be made to pay for the ANC’s ineffectiveness and corruption.

Issued by Natasha Mazzone, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, 16 January 2019