ANC doesn’t belong to DA, says Mantashe after motion of no confidence bid

The ANC doesn’t belong to the Democratic Alliance (DA), Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe told parliament during the State of the National Address (Sona) debate yesterday, as he slapped back at the opposition party.

Mantashe said the DA had resorted to dividing tactics, accusing them of trying to separate the ANC.

This followed a vote of no confidence tabled by DA leader John Steenhuisen against President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.

Mantashe said the only thing the DA statement did was confirm the ANC should work harder.

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“This has called on us, as revolutionaries, to recollect our energy and appreciate we are swimming against the stream,” he said.

“We are on the right track to the limitation of the DA.”

Mantashe referred to the DA as the “blue party” which was, in regard to the energy conversation, trapped in a polarised energy debate and failed to listen to national advice.

He said economist Chris Hart’s advice to the DA about the immediate stopping of the use of coal would mean “costlier electricity, fewer jobs and a country with quasi-Third-World economy” being relegated to the fourth world division – and that the DA failed to comprehend this.

“They have failed to listen to that because they can’t read,” he said.

Mantashe added John Kane-Berman, former chief executive officer of the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), asserted Mantashe was right and the DA wrong, as he referred to SA’s nuclear and coal contributions to energy generation.

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“We support a just transition, instead of a pendulum swing from coal to renewables. We have a duty to journey from high carbon emissions to low carbon emissions. We are driving required policy reforms,” Mantashe said.

EFF treasurer-general Omphile Maotwe said Ramaphosa wanted to collapse all the SOEs.

“With modernisation, efficiency and wider mandate to deliver services, SOEs like Denel, Transnet and Eskom should employ close to five million people in sustainable jobs with living wages.”