For President Jacob Zuma to say that the ANC must “not feel guilty about the energy issue” because it is apartheid’s fault, is to deny the very reason why South Africa is facing an electricity crisis today. This is according to the DA’s parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane.

Zuma recently said that power outages in South Africa are the fault of bad planning during apartheid.

He explained that the ANC had inherited the power utility from the previous regime which had only provided electricity to the white minority.

The DA’s Maimane hit back in a press statement today, saying that the electricity crisis and the threat of the economic shutdown it brings is of the ANC’s own making.

He said that South Africa is burning diesel to keep the lights on, and that Eskom is broke and cannot afford the R1 billion worth of diesel it needs for February.

“The White Paper on energy policy warned as far back as 1998 that we would face an electricity crisis if we did not act,” he said.

“Had new power stations been built by deadline 5 years ago, there would be no load-shedding today.”

Maimane said that Zuma can no longer use the evil of apartheid to justify steps his government could have taken to avoid this crisis.

“If the President and government do not feel responsible for this crisis, then it proves yet again that the ANC is fundamentally incapable of effectively governing South Africa,” he said.

ANC making money from power station delays

Maimane said that the ANC has profited directly from delays in building power stations.

“We have not forgotten ANC front company Chancellor Houses’ stake in the R38.5 billion boiler contract at Medupi,” said Maimane.

He added that even bigger profits can be on the way for President Zuma and the ANC “as we are led down the path of a R1 trillion nuclear energy deal”.

“We need to accelerate the Medupi and Kusile projects, while advancing the rollout of renewable power projects and a licencing regime for natural gas exploration,” said Maimane.

“In doing so, President Zuma needs to abandon the Russian nuclear deal that will take a decade to provide any power and force future generations of South Africans to pay the debt.”

More on Eskom

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