‘That’s how we speak in Upington’: MP Sylvia Lucas says she’s not immune to load shedding

African National Congress (ANC) MP Sylvia Lucas has defended her controversial Sona debate statement on Eskom’s power cuts, saying she is also affected by load shedding.

Speaking in Afrikaans during Tuesday’s MPs Sona debate, she said load shedding “isn’t the end of the world”, claiming sabotage.

Her remarks, interpreted as insensitive, drew widespread condemnation.

Speaking to The Citizen on Wednesday, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) chairperson attributed her views to how people in her hometown Upington, Northern Cape, speak Afrikaans.

“In the past, those people [whites] never cared whether we have electricity or not, but now they want to make it as if they will be the saviours.

“What I said that it is not the end of the world is how we speak where I come from. I didn’t imply that I do not care. And it is not because I am somehow privileged, I am not privileged.”

She slammed her critics for using “just three sentences” from her speech against her.

“Anyone from Upington will tell you that is the way we speak Afrikaans. That is just how we speak.

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“It is not because I am better off, it is because those who are focusing on this matter are making it a running point, the same people who did not care whether we as black people had power or not,” said Lucas.

In 1991 she studied for her matric exams using candlelight, she added.

“We did not have electricity at home, the same as many black areas before 1994. Now we have electrified homes.”

‘I suffer the same as everyone’

Lucas said, just like other South Africans, she had to try to make a plan for her children back home.

She said she bought an R18 500 inverter.

“I bought it so that my children can charge phones, wifi and for the TV and fridge. The government house in Cape Town that I stay in doesn’t have any alternative means of electricity.

“Some people are saying that I have R200 000 worth of solar panels, but I do not have that. On Saturday we went eight hours without power, I suffer the same as everyone else,” she said.

Lucas, a former Northern Cape ANC premier, is not new to controversy.

She came under fire in 2013 when she spent R50 000 in taxpayers’ money to buy takeaways during her first 10 weeks in office as premier.

According to the Sunday Times, she spent R26 565 on food in one month at outlets in Kimberley using her government-issued credit card.

She defended her spending, saying the outlets were nearer to her State home in Kimberley.

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