ANC slogan says ‘the power is in your hands’ amid load shedding

“The power is in your hands,” says an ANC slogan, launched this year in time for the 2019 national elections, which are expected to take place on May 8.

The slogan, which appears on a poster in a tweet sent out from the official ANC account on January 19, can currently be seen on ANC billboards.

READ MORE: Load shedding darkens ANC’s election outlook

This may not be ideal timing for such a slogan, however, as this week has seen the return of load shedding amid uncertainty as to the future of Eskom.

This was pointed out by Gillian Rightford, who works with advertising agencies and marketers with her company AdTherapy, which says its mission is to “rid the world of bad ads”.

https://twitter.com/grightford/status/1096305944374448129

https://twitter.com/CBambani/status/1095668791231549440

The Power is in Your Hands

— African National Congress (@MYANC) January 13, 2019

The department of public enterprises circulated a presentation earlier this week stating that Eskom was “technically insolvent” and that it would “cease to exist” by April if they continued on the current trajectory.

But the department then issued a correction the following day, saying it was incorrect in calling the struggling utility “insolvent” and that it was simply facing “liquidity challenges”.

Either way, it seems a bailout from the government may be the only solution.

READ MORE: Gordhan’s 9-point rescue plan for Eskom is a spark of hope

Minister of public enterprises Pravin Gordhan has put forward a nine-point rescue plan for Eskom, which energy expert Chris Yelland told The Citizen is a “credible” one. He added, though, that it would require plenty of time and money, both of which are already in short supply.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently announced at his second state of the nation address (Sona) that Eskom would be unbundled and split into three entities handling generation, transmission, and distribution seperately.

Unions have slammed this move and vowed to opposed it, saying it would pave the way towards privatisation, despite Ramaphosa, Gordhan, and others denying this.

We are currently NOT loadshedding. Please contact your service provider if experiencing a power outage as this may be related to a planned / unplanned outage or a fault. Eskom customers can report #poweroutages on MyEskom Customer App available at https://t.co/Z6RO8tAzrB

— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) February 15, 2019

Meanwhile, Eskom has provided South Africans with a respite following a week of load shedding, announcing that no load shedding is taking place currently.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.