South Africans are taking their power back

Dear Editor

After 16 years of ANC lies and false promises about working hard to solve the country’s loadshedding crisis, South Africans have had enough and they have stepped up in a big way to save their country from the brink of ANC ruin.

Eskom’s own data shows that households and businesses have installed an estimated estimated 4,400MW of rooftop solar PV which, according to independent energy analysts, is double the solar capacity procured under Eskom’s four bid windows. This remarkable feat has been achieved in just one year.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) takes this opportunity to thank South Africans for both their resilience and their willingness to focus on solutions in the face of ANC failure and the mismanagement of the electricity sector. When South Africa appeared to be hurtling towards an inevitable grid failure, and unavoidable economic ruin, it was ordinary citizens who stood up and turned the hopeless situation around.

The DA categorically rejects the shameful attempts by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to hijack the people’s power generation success as evidence that the ANC government was turning the tide on loadshedding. It is common knowledge that the ANC government has been anything but proactive in solving the power crisis, choosing instead to protect Eskom’s monopoly at every turn despite clear evidence that the entity has failed.

Eskom is now able to suspend loadshedding during the day, not because of improved generation capacity at its coal fired stations or the addition of new capacity – but because of the 4400MW of solar PV installations by households and businesses which cut 4 stages of loadshedding.

Seeing what South Africans have accomplished in just one year, the ANC government should be making it easy, not difficult, to double the roll out of solar PV installations. The DA will be campaigning hard to have the solar tax incentive, which is due to expire at the end of 2023, extended for at least another year. South Africans have proven that, if the clueless ANC government gets out of the way, they can turn this country around for the better.

Regards

Samantha Graham-Maré MP
DA Shadow Minister of Electricity