Ramokgopa has failed and Ramaphosa is missing in action

Dear Editor

As the country goes through a punishing and economically destructive stage 7 load-shedding schedule, it is now abundantly clear that the Minister of Electricity – Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has failed.

His appointing authority, President Cyril Ramaphosa, has adopted a ‘hands-off’ approach on the electricity crisis, further underlining the fact that the ANC has run out of ideas on how to plug the Eskom generation deficit.

Ever since he appointed Ramokgopa to the Electricity portfolio, Ramaphosa has completely disengaged himself from leading efforts towards finding a permanent solution/s to the crisis. The immediate consequence of that disengagement is that, Ramokgopa has lurched from the lack of a clear plan to telling outright lies about a non-existent recovery in generation capacity.

With no basis in fact, Ramokgopa has led the charge – ably assisted by the President, Deputy President and the other two Ministers responsible for electricity, announcing that the crisis will be over shortly and even pointing to an end-of-year deadline. The reality is that, neither Eskom, nor the failing ANC government have demonstrated any ability to meaningfully address the electricity crisis.

In a stunning display of indifference to what South Africans are going through, this morning Cabinet issued a ‘we don’t care’ patronizing statement in which they blandly stated that “Cabinet was assured that the current implementation of increased stages of load shedding is a short-term phase as Eskom prepares for sustained and lessened stages of load shedding in the not-so-distant future.” If ever there was an award for showing the middle finger in 2023, this insulting Cabinet statement will take the cup.

The ill-advised plan to postpone maintenance of Eskom generation plants and create an illusion that generation was on the mend has pushed the country to the brink, with disastrous economic consequences. With 45% of Eskom’s generation capacity offline, there is no guarantee that the remaining functional units will be able to keep working for much longer before they, too, break down. At this rate, it is very much possible that load-shedding may go beyond stage 7 today or over the weekend.

We reiterate our call that South Africans should not be forced to pay exorbitant electricity prices for electricity that they do not have. It is for this reason that the DA took the fight to the Gauteng High Court this week to challenge NERSA’s two-year 30% tariff hike and to have load-shedding declared unconstitutional. We will simply not allow Eskom to continue to extort money from South Africans, already struggling under a cost of living crisis, to pay for the entity’s own inefficiencies.

Regards

Samantha Graham-Maré MP
DA Shadow Minister of Electricity