Eskom’s monopoly must be broken – DA

DA members sang and danced, brandishing placards which read,’Break the Eskom monopoly before it breaks South Africa. The DA youth league led the march before the political party’s parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane took centre stage.

Maimane condemned load shedding and reiterated that the DA wanted Eskom to admit that the country was in a power crisis. He said load shedding had contributed to the high unemployment rate in the country and had put citizens at risk because more crime was conducted under the shroud of darkness. He added that essential services such as hospitals, clinics and fire stations could not function during stage three load shedding.

“How can you lead SA forward into the light if you keep looking backward?” Maimane said to the crowd of DA supporters. “President Zuma misses apartheid. President Zuma likes load shedding because in the dark people can’t see what’s really happening.”

Maimane explained that the country’s existing power stations, under Eskom, have fallen into disrepair and were breaking down on a weekly basis due to lack of maintenance. “Eskom has also been unable to build new power stations on time either, with Medupi and Kusile now more than five years behind schedule,” he said. “And yet since load shedding began in 2008, Eskom’s top executives have been paid R63 million in performance bonuses.”

Maimane rallied the crowd of DA supporters together saying, “Eskom has taken us to the brink of economic shutdown. we simply must break the Eskom monopoly, before it breaks South Africa. Enough is enough.”

Eskom announced that they would implement stage one load shedding from 10am to 10pm on 4 January.

At 1pm on 4 January the power utility said they would move to stage two load shedding from 2pm onwards as a result of power stations not returning to service as planned.

Read our previous story, DA youth protest at Megawatt Park.