Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) leader Julius Malema has reiterated his call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down, as South Africa’s energy crisis worsens.
This follows a virtual meeting Ramaphosa held with the EFF, other political parties and the Eskom board on Monday.
Ramaphosa on Sunday canceled a trip to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos to address the country’s energy crisis.
“Due to the ongoing energy crisis, President Cyril Ramaphosa has canceled his working visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. The president is currently holding a meeting with the leaders of political parties represented in parliament, the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM), and the Eskom board,” said a spokesman said Vincent Magwenya, Sunday.
“President Ramaphosa has engaged the leaders of Eskom and the National Energy Crisis Committee (NECCOM) and these meetings will continue. Another briefing session for key stakeholders will take place during this coming week.
‘Ramaphosa must resign’
Malema said Ramaphosa had blood on his hands because people were losing their lives when systems and machines that depended on electricity went on and off.
He also stated that the president should resign because he failed to provide electricity to the people.
“We are EF reiterated that Mr Ramaphosa must resign immediately and South Africans must come up with a solution to the Eskom crisis. There are people in South Africa who have previously stopped offloading and bringing South Africa to energy stability.
“We as South Africans must unashamedly and rightly seek the guidance and knowledge of those who can provide reliable and trustworthy electricity to all and get rid of all manifestations of incompetence at Eskom,” he said in a statement.
‘Eskom’s crisis is man-made’
The party also said that issues in power utilities are being handled by leaders with their own agenda.
“South Africa’s electricity supply problems are created by people who want to destroy Eskom so they can privately generate electricity for greedy capitalist interests.”
‘Everyone has to take responsibility
According to the EFF, Ramaphosa suggested that the government is not solely responsible for the load-shedding crisis and citizens should also be held accountable.
“This statement is not just an argument; it is ridiculous and irresponsible because only the ANC government chose to appoint an incompetent CEO and senior management of Eskom. All boards and senior management in Eskom are appointed by the ANC government and overseen by ANC Ministers.
Eskom’s problems will take more than two years to fix
The EFF also said Ramaphosa thought the government would not be able to solve Eskom’s problems in the next two years.
“The current Board leadership and the outgoing CEO have categorically stated that even in 24 months, there is no guarantee that the available Energy Factor will be restored above 60% of South Africa’s generation capacity.”
Malema also said that Ramaphosa should be held accountable for lost jobs and small businesses that are closed due to lack of electricity.
READ MORE: REPORT: More than a million jobs lost to open shedding
“The people of South Africa must now know that the power lies within them to liberate themselves from an incompetent and directionless government.
“What we can say without fear of contradiction is that the current political leadership, the Eskom Board and the Management do not have the capacity and the will to solve the problem of load and electricity,” the EFF said.
NOW Read: Is Eskom really doing more maintenance at De Ruyter?
Compiled by We won Khumalo