‘Who takes Ramaphosa seriously?’ — Mashaba criticises president over load-shedding crisis

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has lambasted President Cyril Ramaphosa’s explanations about high levels of load-shedding, asking who believes or takes the president seriously.

The country was plunged into stage 6 load-shedding last week, with stages 4 and 5 remaining over the weekend after breakdowns at the Hendrina, Kendal and Kriel power stations.

While the president planned to meet his ministers over the power cuts, he told media at the ANC Letsema campaign event in Cape Town that fixing the crisis would take time.

Mashaba responded to Ramaphosa’s comments and questioned his credentials.

Ramaphosa said a new board had been appointed at Eskom and had his full support.

“We have always said we are dealing with a very complex matter. The board has just been appointed and they are wrapping their minds around the utility. Let us give them a chance. 

“We have said load-shedding is going to be a problem for us. Going forward, government is committed to bring load-shedding to an end. Load-shedding is not a deliberate act by the government, by Eskom management. It is what we are dealing with in terms of power stations that keep breaking. This has been happening for quite some time and we are dealing with the problem,” he said.

The president said other countries were also dealing with energy challenges.

ActionSA said the disastrous implementation of stage 6 rolling blackouts was of grave concern.

Mashaba said: “It is hardly believable that South Africa finds itself in a situation where almost half the country’s electricity grid is offline, and not for the first time this year.”

“With the news that Koeberg’s unit 1 will go offline for several months and the 3,000MWs worth of units at Kusile and Medupi offline indefinitely, there is no hope South Africa will soon be rid of the darkness the ANC has plunged it into. In fact, we stand on the verge of stage 7.

“In a scenario where the cost of living and inflation are rapidly increasing, the additional cost of, and damage, caused by blackouts will further entrench the hardships faced by millions of South Africans,” said Mashaba.

He said the ANC has no plan or intention to fix the crisis, as with many of the crises faced by the country.

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