‘Blame Gordhan for Eskom mess, not the ANC,’ says ANCYL

The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) says the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) march to Luthuli House is a coordinated attack to shift blame from the failures of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter to the ANC and Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe.

This was in the wake of the DA march to Luthuli House in Johannesburg to deliver a memorandum of demands to the governing party concerning the ongoing electricity crisis.

Their memorandum was, however, not received by anyone as the ANCYL protected their headquarters.

The youth league was also hungry for blood as they attempted to bridge the security barricades which were meant to prevent the ANCYL members and the DA supporters from clashing.

‘Slaughter against Mantashe but not Gordhan’

ANC national executive committee member Nonceba Mhlauli said Mantashe was being used as a scapegoat for the failures of Gordhan.

She said they found it very suspect that the renewable lobby has identified a minister not responsible for the Eskom as the fall guy.

“They not asking the same questions to the minister responsible for it. We also find it very suspect that the executives at Eskom who are employed to keep our lights on are not being held accountable.

“The religious community is saying Eskom must not go to Mantashe, on what basis are they saying that?” she said.

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“This is a coordinated attack to try and shift the blame to someone who is not responsible for Eskom. The problems at Eskom are not only in relation to energy generation. The problems of Eskom are also related to issues of governance which is not being attended to.”

Mhlauli said the DA has been protecting De Ruyter, saying when Eskom has a white CEO, they blame the ANC, but when black CEOs were at the helm, they shifted the blame to the CEO.

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“It just shows they are not interested in solving the energy crisis, what they are interested in is shifting the blame to a political party and certain ministers. You would have noticed the slaughter against Minister Mantashe but not towards Gordhan who is responsible for Eskom and not towards the board,” Mhlauli.

“We have asked for the resignations of the Eskom CEO and the removal of the board because we believed the then board was not doing its job. They behaved as if they were influencers of renewable energy as opposed to finding solutions for Eskom. We have also said the minister has failed to give answers to the problems therefore the ANC must redeploy him.”

DA ‘mischievous’

She said the DA march was “mischievous, childish and a cheap politicking electioneering gimmick”.

“We share the same frustrations with millions of South Africans about load shedding. In fact, as the ANCYL we are going to be marching on Eskom offices where we will be delivering our memorandum of demands in so far as the energy crisis is concerned,” she said.

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“The DA is not involved in finding solutions, what they are trying to do is to use a national crisis to steer away the discussion to holding those that ought to be held accountable which starts with the Eskom executive and tries to move it towards the ANC.”

ANCYL national organiser Tlangi Mogale said no political party can wake up and march to another political party’s headquarters, especially in the wake of a campaigning season where the country was gearing up for general elections next year.

She said the DA was embarking on an adventurous process which would not yield any results.

“If the DA is genuine about the issues they are raising and genuinely want to contribute to the discourse on how to resolve the energy crisis, they must present their solutions to Megawatt Park [Eskom’s headquarters] not here,” Mogale said.

“We do not know who they want to deliver the memorandum to because there’s no official of Eskom at Luthuli House.”

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Mogale said they have also warned their leaders not to accept any memorandum from the DA.

“As the youth league, we have said to our leaders ‘not a single one of them will collect and receive any memorandum because we are not Eskom’,” she said.

“Yes we are the governing party and we have deployed comrades to oversee and preside over matters of Eskom.”

– lungam@citizen.co.za