Speaking at the Eskom Megawatt Park in Midrand today (10 December), DA leader John Steenhuisen addressed members of the media and detailed what the political party wants the President to do.
Steenhuisen said that while President Cyril Ramaphosa is away in Egypt, the country is crippling with the rolling blackouts hogging South Africa as load-shedding was been moved to Stage 6 yesterday (9 December).
“The President is greatly mistaken if he believes that a crisis like this can be solved via cellphone or via his iPad. These require on-the-ground leadership, here on home soil in South Africa”.
Steenhuisen said the DA is calling on the President to address parliament and be able to tell the country what is actually happening with the country’s electricity state.
“I don’t think that South Africans are being given the full story. We have moved from wet coal to broken conveyor belts to panels that have had overloading and we are not hearing any concrete reasons as to why we are now in this crisis.”
He also said the President needs to ‘level’ with the people of South Africa and tell them what they can expect.
Steenhuisen also appealed to the President to remove the Minister of Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe. He said that Mantashe is in denial and is unable to deal with the most basic elements of his portfolio.
He also said that it is unconstitutional that while the lights are off in South Africa, the people’s representatives in parliament are not there lighting the way forward out of the crisis.
“The most efficient and immediate step is using section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act which allows the Minister of Mineral Resources to issue a determination that will allow qualifying municipalities to bypass Eskom and produce a procure power directly from independent power producers.”
Steenhuisen said that doing this will go a long way into restoring energy shortages and pressure on the grid. “Introducing independent power producers into the mix is now more essential than ever before, it is a necessity.”
He emphasised that the President needs to instruct Minister Mantashe to sign applications for independent power producers to lead this country out of the darkness in the next 48 hours.
Steenhuisen concluded that the President needs to redeem the 23 years of failure and come back home and take charge of the national crisis before it spirals even further out of control.
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