Deputy president of Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) opposition party, Floyd Shivambu, holds a press conference on October 16, 2018, in Johannesburg.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) deputy president Floyd Shivambu criticised ANC MPs during the second day of the State of the Nation Address (Sona) debate on Wednesday, saying all they did was sing for their supper instead of presenting tangible solutions for the country’s crises.
This after ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina on Tuesday criticised EFF MPs for being “an embarrassment to the nation” following their behaviour during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Sona last week.
READ MORE: EFF is ‘an embarrassment to the nation’, says ANC’s Pemmy Majodina
On Wednesday, Shivambu slammed ANC MPs for not presenting anything “tangible and believable” to solve the country’s crises, especially the energy crisis.
He said they instead “sang for their supper”.
“I did not anticipate that the speaker who spoke here [Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Khumbudzo Ntshavheni] is going to sing as well because we’re going to deal with the others who came to sing for supper. I will avoid responding to the childish and insignificant inputs that came from members of the ruling party,” said Shivambu.
“Many of the speakers that came here never presented anything tangible and believable as to what is to be done. One of the careerists MPs who spoke yesterday even sang, seeking a job from his president.
“We must also hire a jumping castle so that after singing a song, they must go and jump there, they will be joined by this one who just sang here [Ntshavheni].”
Shivambu criticised Ntshavheni for “failing” to synchronise all the state’s technological platforms.
“The entire system operates in separation but we have a minister who cannot provide a synchronised system,” he said.
Shivambu further made a few suggestions on how the electricity crisis can be fixed.
“We speak decisively on what is to be done in relation to the electricity crisis confronting society. Many of the speakers that came here never presented anything tangible and believable as to what is to be done.”
The EFF MP told parliamentarians to stop with “the illusion” that “South Africa is immediately going to discontinue the usage of coal as baseload energy because that is the only way we can sustain our electricity”.
“We need to plug into the national grid the Floating Storage and Regasification Units. The secretary-general of the ANC [Fikile Mbalula] will not know what that is because in the schooling system before tertiary they don’t teach that,” said Shivambu.
“Due to those who are seeking bribes and trying to extort the people who awarded that bid, the karpowerships cannot be plugged into the grid to alleviate the energy crisis we have. The reality is that, in the immediate, you have no other solution except plugging in the FSRU from Turkey, Russia and China.”
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He further called for South Africa to approve a proposal from Russian state energy company Rosatom.
“We need to talk about these things because we know that you’re going to be out of power, we’re going to take power as the EFF. We do not want to take power under darkness.”
Shivambu further criticised Ramaphosa for “putting the country in reverse gear”.
“Everything we’ve made progress on is going backwards. We never thought that we would have the crisis of electricity. Who ever thought we would have water shedding? We have job losses because of this man. He’s taking the country in reverse gear the same way he did when he was utilising his first car.”
RELATED: ‘Five disastrous years’: Ramaphosa’s ‘new dawn’ turned into false dawn – Steenhuisen
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