DA calls for debate on the financial crisis at Eskom

The DA’s Natasha Mazzone has called for a debate on the financial crisis at Eskom following the swearing in of South Africa’s 6th Parliament and the election of a new Speaker.

Incoming members of the National Assembly and delegates of the National Council of Provinces are expected to start arriving at parliament from Monday ahead of their swearing in as legislators on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mazzone said the opposition party would write to the new Speaker requesting “a debate of national importance on the unfolding financial crisis at Eskom”.

Mazzone said: “This follows media reports that contractors working at Kusile Power Station have submitted claims totalling R36 billion to the financially crippled Eskom.

“The South African taxpayer, already burdened with rising electricity costs and flat-lining economy, cannot be expected to keep pouring billions of rands into the Eskom black hole, even as evidence continues to mount on the entity’s terminal decline.

“That South Africans are being asked to pay for years of mismanagement at Eskom and poor project management of Eskom’s build programme is a testament to the depth of the national governance crisis engineered by the ANC government.

“It is outrageous that the architects of state capture, some of whom were directly involved in the collapse of Eskom, will be sworn in as ‘honourable’ members of the 6th Parliament. Instead of facing consequences for bringing the country to close to financial ruin, they are being rewarded and protected by the ANC.”

Mazzone said the DA is urging law enforcement agencies to ensure that all those who are implicated “in the industrial scale corruption that took place at Eskom, and elsewhere in government, are given an opportunity to have their day in court”.

“The recent directive to license independent power producers (IPPs) was a step in the right direction and we urge the new government to stand its ground and not be bullied by Unions who are intent on saving an underperforming Eskom.

“The 6th Parliament has an obligation to ensure that it works to resolve the challenges that have kept Eskom in the red and threatened to send the country on financial ruin. The DA stands ready and willing to play its role to bring normalcy in the country’s energy sector.”

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