The leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), John Steenhuisen, said the party was organizing a ‘major march’ to protest against load shedding and rate hikes.
The country is currently under the influence of phase 6 load shedding, and to add insult to injury, Eskom will be allowed an 18.65% electricity tariff.
DA energy crisis protest
On Saturday, Steenhuisen confirmed that his party was “organising a major protest march to the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on 25 January”.
‘Get ANC power’
He said the protest was “against the ANC-engineered electricity crisis”.
Stage 6 is letting go of your burdens. It is time to take the power of the ANC.
Steenhuisen said that South Africans will not be able to live with the 18.65% increase in electricity rates, especially not since “stage 6 of the cost release costs SA R4 billion per day.”
‘Reject rate hike’
He said the rate hike should be rejected as it “will only add to the cost of living crisis”.
On Friday, Steenhuisen said: “Time to hit the road in SA! We can’t sit back and take hyper-inflation!”
He added: “Many citizens can barely keep their heads above water. This Nersa increase of 18.65% is like a government jackboot pushing more of us to the surface.
Open letter to Ramaphosa
Steenhuisen also asked to meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa about the “deepening electricity crisis”.
In an open letter addressed to the president, Steenhuisen wrote: “I want to know the reason for the failure, so far, to implement meaningful reforms in the energy sector”.
Steenhuisen said South Africa did not have the “built-in resilience” to withstand the burden of stage 6.
Furthermore, he wanted to know why the ANC “has been so lethargic and conservative in its response to this disaster”.
Load the shedding solution
Steenhuisen said there are five key interventions needed to prevent South Africa’s electricity crisis (as previously presented to the president).
The steps are as follows:
- Unbundle Eskom into a separate generation, transmission and distribution entity and open the market to private power producers.
- Get skilled engineers and stop political interference.
- Declaration of State Disaster ring-fenced to exempt Eskom from all obstacles to spend efficiently and quickly decision-making.
- Ramp up security at all key Eskom sites and crack down on saboteurs.
- Do everything you can to get private generation online as soon as possible (like lifting the 100MW cap).
Steenhuizen finished: “South Africans are desperate for a sign that this crisis will end. Our own voters are asking every day what they are doing and when they can expect relief.
“I need to know what I have to say, so I respectfully ask you to meet with me for a full discussion of the matter”.