“What the DA is doing here is disrespecting the ANC in its own home,” Tlangi Mogale, a member of the ANC Youth League, said at the Democratic Alliance march to Luthuli House, the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg.
The Democratic Alliance marched on Wednesday to protest against the prolonged cargo shedding and deployment of cabinet cadres.
Mogale said that no political party should march on another party’s headquarters, especially as the country prepares for general elections next year.
“They should present their solutions to Megawatt Park [Eskom’s headquarters], not here. We don’t know who they want to deliver the memo to because there is no Eskom official at Luthuli House.”
The district attorney has said the blackouts were “an ANC-engineered power crisis” which is why they marched on the ruling party headquarters instead of the government Union Buildings in Pretoria.
The DA’s chief parliamentarian whip, Sivuyile Gwarube, said the party would demand “real solutions to the energy crisis.”
DA leader John Steenhuisen said that when you had a problem, you went to the root of the problem to address it.
“South Africans cannot cook, study or get hot water to wash. Unemployment is the highest in the world. It has been 15 years of load shedding. The ANC knew about the problem in 1998. They were warned that if they didn’t build new power plants, we would be in trouble by 2007.”
He added that 15 years later, the Medupi and Kusile plants had not been completed due to poor leadership and corruption within the ranks of the ANC.
head to head
The march comes as the two sides are in a legal battle in Gauteng’s high court, where the district attorney is challenging the ANC’s cadre deployment policy, saying it is part of the reason state entities are find themselves in a difficult financial situation.
The march also coincides with Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse facing three no-confidence motions, which were expected to take place on January 26.
It has little chance of survival after a dispute between the DA and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) last year.
ActionSA Chairman Michael Beaumont said the DA had collapsed in negotiations to restore a majority to the ruling multi-party coalition in Johannesburg.
He said the deal would have restored the coalition majority in Johannesburg that would have left out the ANC and probably the Economic Freedom Fighters in Ekurhuleni.
district attorney complaints
Steenhuisen lamented how some ANC members hold power while the rest of the country suffers. “The president and the ministers do not worry about the load slides because the Minister of Public Works, Patricia de Lille, has provided the ministers with generators in their homes, which are paid for with taxpayer money.”
Kevin Mileham, a DA MP who sits on parliament’s energy portfolio committee, echoed Steenhuisen’s sentiments.
“It’s been 15 years of burden reduction, but the ANC knew about the program long before. In 1998, they were warned that if they didn’t build new power plants by 2007, SA would lose power and that’s exactly what happened,” Mileham said.
ANC spokesman Pule Mabe said ANC Youth League members outside Luthuli House were a welcoming committee for DA protesters. He added that the opposition party was provoking and “the ANC will not receive any memorandum from him.”
DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga said: “South Africa has a cancer called the ANC and we won’t get it right until we get this cancer out of our system.”
Gwarube said the country was in a state of crisis “and we cannot afford not to express our anger at this ANC-manufactured crisis” and this was what prompted the district attorney’s decision to hold a “peaceful” march. to Luthuli House.
“We requested the necessary permission to march and they granted it to us; there is no damage to ANC property,” he said.
DA marcheres were barred from entering the ANC headquarters.
