- A tense standoff is brewing as the prosecutor marches on Luthuli House to protest the country’s electricity crisis.
- The ANC Youth League is meeting in front of the party headquarters and has vowed to defend the premises.
- The ANC also accused the DA of hiring a crowd to protest outside its headquarters.
Members of the ANC Youth League have rallied in numbers, vowing to “defend the headquarters at all costs”, ahead of a DA-hosted #PowerToThePeopleMarch at Luthuli House.
The opposition party cited an “ANC-engineered electricity crisis” as the reason for the march on the ruling party’s headquarters instead of the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Upon arrival, the party said, it will demand “real solutions to the energy crisis.” The march comes as the two sides face off in a legal battle in Gauteng 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 rallying point before the march was Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, where hundreds of DA members began to gather.
Official opposition chief whip Siviwe Gwarube said “the country is in a state of crisis and we cannot afford not to express our anger at this ANC-manufactured crisis.”
Gwarube added:
The ANC, through its deployment of cadres and appointment of unqualified members, all in the name of them being loyal to the party, created a crisis in our state entities.
She said it was what prompted the district attorney’s decision to hold a “peaceful” march to Luthuli House. “We applied for the necessary permission to march and it was granted; there is no danger to ANC property,” Gwarube said.
ANC Youth League national task force member Tlangi Mogale said the league had a mandate to defend the ANC headquarters.
If the DA wants to raise issues related to electricity, he should direct them to Eskom’s headquarters, Mogale said.
“There is an unspoken rule between political parties not to trespass on another’s headquarters. The DA must keep a 100 meter radius away from Luthuli House, and we know they hired black people for R150 each and will use them as human shields. so that we can not be violent with our own people.
