Ramaphosa must take responsibility for jobs that are being lost due to load shedding – Malema

Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has reiterated his call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign, as South Africa’s energy crisis worsens.

This follows a virtual meeting Ramaphosa held with the EFF, other political parties and the Eskom board on Monday.

Ramaphosa on Sunday cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to address the energy crisis in the country.

“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa has cancelled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. Currently, the president is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM), and the Eskom board,” said his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya on Sunday.

“President Ramaphosa has already engaged with the leadership of Eskom and National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM) and those meetings will continue. More briefing sessions to key stakeholders will take place during this coming week.”

‘Ramaphosa must resign’

Malema said Ramaphosa had blood on his hands because people were losing lives when electricity dependent life support systems and machines went on and off.

He also stated that the president should resign as he had failed to provide electricity to citizens.

“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.”

“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,” a statement reads.

‘Eskom crisis man-made’

The party also alleged that the issues at the power-utility were orchestrated by people in leadership with their own agendas at play.  

“The problems of electricity supply in South Africa are man-made by people who want to destroy Eskom so that they can privately generate electricity for their own greedy capitalist interests.”

‘Everyone must take responsibility

According to the EFF, Ramaphosa suggested that the government is not solely responsible for the load shedding crisis and that citizens also needed to take responsibility.

“This statement is not only objectionable; it is ludicrous and irresponsible because it is solely the ANC government that chose to appoint an incompetent CEO and senior management of Eskom. All the boards and senior management in Eskom are appointed by the ANC government and overseen by an ANC Minister.”

Eskom matters will take more than two years to fix

EFF also said Ramaphosa estimated that the government would not be able to sort out Eskom’s troubles within the next two years.

“The current leadership of the Board and outgoing CEO categorically stated that even within the 24 months, there is no guarantee that the Available Energy Factor will be restored above 60% of South Africa’s generation capacity.”

Malema also said Ramaphosa must take full responsibility for the jobs that are being lost and small businesses that are closing due to lack of electricity.

READ MORE: REPORT: More than a million jobs lost to load shedding

“The people of South Africa must now know that the power is fully within them to liberate themselves from an incompetent and directionless government.

“What we can state without fear of contradiction is that the current political leadership, the Eskom Board and Management have no capacity and willingness to solve the problem of load shedding and electricity,” the EFF concluded.

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Compiled by Siphumelele Khumalo