PHUTI MOSOMANE
EFF leader Julius Malema has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign because he has ‘repeatedly and perennially’ failed to provide electricity to the people of South Africa.
Malema made the call following a meeting convened by Ramaphosa and the Eskom board with political party leaders.
After the meeting, the EFF said Ramaphosa, Eskom Board Members, the outgoing CEO Andre de Ruyter and the National Energy Crisis Committee made presentations which conceded that Eskom and the entire government were not in a position to resolve South Africa’s electricity crisis within the next 24 months.
Malema said Ramaphosa must therefore take full responsibility for the jobs that are being lost and small businesses that are closing due to the ack of electricity.
The EFF leader said “Ramaphosa has blood on his hands because people are losing lives when electricity dependent life support systems and machines switch on and off.”
“We as the EFF reiterate that Mr. Ramaphosa must step down immediately and the people of South Africa must come with a solution to the ESKOM crisis. There are people in South Africa who have previously stopped load shedding and brought South Africa into energy stability,” said Malema.
“We should as South Africa unashamedly and correctly seek the guidance and knowledge of those who were able to provide reliable and dependable electricity to all and get rid of all manifestations of incompetence in ESKOM.”
On Sunday, Ramaphosa cancelled his participation at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in order seek solutions to loadshedding, which has impacted negatively on the lives and livelihoods of South Africans.
He had been scheduled to lead a delegation from South Africa to the Swiss resort town to promote the country as an investment destination.
Earlier on Monday, Eskom announced that Stage 4 loadshedding will be implemented at 05:00 – 16:00 on Tuesday, followed by stage 5 loadshedding at 16:00 – 05:00 on Wednesday.
Eskom said it has procured 50 million litres of diesel on January 6 to manage pumped storage dam levels and help reduce the frequency of loadshedding.
Currently, there are 12 generators out in planned maintenance amounting to 5 804 MW of capacity.
Meanwhile, 16 173MW of generating capacity is unavailable due to breakdown.
Protests have erupted in some parts of the Free State Province and Gauteng Province over the shortage of electricity supply.
Last week, South Africa’s electricity regulator approved an electricity price increase for consumers of more than 18% for this year and a further increase in 2024, despite the power utility’s failure to provide a reliable supply.
South Africa is looking to add additional electricity capacity through emergency procurement of renewable energy sources like wind and solar, but that is unlikely to happen in the short term.
INSIDE POLITICS. Additional reporting by AP.
