“What the DA is doing here is disrespecting the ANC in its own house,” said ANC Youth League member Tlangi Mogale at a Democratic Alliance march to Luthuli House, the ANC’s headquarters in Johannesburg.
Democratic Alliance on Wednesday to protest against the suspension of the burden and the deployment of cadres to the cabinet.
Mogale said no political party should march to another party’s headquarters, especially when the country is gearing up for next year’s general election.
“They need to provide a solution to Megawatt Park [Eskom’s headquarters], not here. We do not know who is going to send the memorandum because there is no Eskom official at Luthuli House.
The DA has said the blackout was an “ANC-engineered power crisis”, which is why he went to the ruling party’s headquarters instead of the government’s Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The DA’s parliamentary chief whip, Sivuyile Gwarube, said the party would demand “a real solution to the energy crisis”.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said when there is a problem, one goes to the root of the problem to solve it.
“South Africans can’t cook, study or get hot water to wash. Unemployment is the highest in the world. It’s been 15 years of load-shedding. The ANC knew the problem in 1998. They warned that if we don’t build new power plants, we will have trouble in 2007.
He added that 15 years later, the Medupi and Kusile power plants have not been completed due to poor leadership and corruption within the ranks of the ANC.
Head to head
March comes as two parties in a legal battle in the Gauteng high court, where the DA challenged the ANC’s military deployment policy, saying it is part of the reason the state-owned entity has found itself in a difficult financial situation.
The march also coincides with Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse facing three no-confidence motions, which are expected to be held on January 26.
He has a chance of survival after the fallout between the DA and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) last year.
ActionSA chairman Michael Beaumont said the DA had collapsed talks to restore the ruling multi-party coalition majority in Johannesburg.
He said the deal would restore a coalition majority in Johannesburg that would prevent the ANC and, probably, the Economic Freedom Fighters from exiting Ekurhuleni.
DA complaint
Steenhuisen lamented how some members of the ANC had power while the rest of the country suffered. “The president and the ministers are not worried about reducing the burden because the Minister of Public Works Patricia de Lille has provided the ministers with generators in their homes, paid for with taxpayers’ money.”
Kevin Mileham, a DA MP who sits on the parliament’s energy portfolio committee, echoed Steenhuisen’s sentiments.
“It’s been 15 years of load shedding, but the ANC knew about the program before. In 1998, they were warned that if they didn’t build new power plants before 2007, SA would run out of electricity and that’s exactly what happened,” said Mileham.
ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said members of the ANC Youth League outside Luthuli Building were the welcome committee for the DA marchers. He added that the opposition party was being provocative and “the ANC will not accept a memorandum from that”.
Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga said: “South Africa has a cancer called the ANC and we will not be able to until we eradicate this cancer from our system.”
Gwarube said the country is in crisis “and we cannot express our anger at this ANC-created crisis” and this is what led to the DA’s decision to hold a “peaceful” march to Luthuli House.
“We asked for the necessary permission to march and it was granted to us; no harm was done to ANC property,” he said.
The DA marchere was banned from entering the ANC headquarters.