No joy for opposition leaders in their power crisis meeting with CR

Opposition party leaders got no joy from their meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday night to discuss the rolling blackouts.

The irony was that several leaders could not participate in the virtual meeting due to load-shedding. Among them was DA leader John Steenhuisen, who last week wrote to Ramaphosa requesting a meeting to discuss the energy crisis.

“I couldn’t attend because of load-shedding, I don’t have Wi-Fi during load-shedding and my other stuff had run down,” Steenhuisen told TimesLIVE on Monday.

TimesLIVE has seen messages from a WhatsApp group in which Ramaphosa’s parliamentary counsellor Gerhard Koornhof informed party leaders of the meeting.

“I have load-shedding this evening at that time and given the rude and dismissive response I received from the president's office when I requested a meeting with him it is clear we are not taken seriously,” Steenhuisen wrote in the group.

ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe also said he would be in load-shedding at the time of the meeting.

The African Transformation Movement’s Vuyo Zungula was also having load-shedding, but he later said he was not going to participate in any case, accusing Ramaphosa of not consulting in good faith.

“He undermines us. He calls us to these meetings, we comment and give suggestions, but when he goes out he communicates whatever he wants and creates an impression that whatever he is communicating has the support of party leaders.”

The UDM’s Bantu Holomisa declined the invitation, saying he would be busy with his lawyers finalising documents to be served on Eskom and government about the failure to ensure a stable supply of electricity.

On Monday, Holomisa and a group of prominent South Africans wrote to outgoing Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, demanding government stabilise the supply or face legal action for failing to provide energy.

For PAC president Mzwanele Nyhontso, the meeting “felt like a tickbox exercise”.

“There was nothing new, it was the same stuff we heard last year and what has been in the news,” he said.

“There was no need for that meeting. It was a repeat of the things they say every day in press statements.”

Among the topics discussed was De Ruyter’s resignation and alleged poisoning, and finding his replacement. Leaders were told the country will be on stage 6 for some time, though this is scheduled to drop to stage 5 and 4 from Tuesday.

Nyhontso said Gordhan gave the background to load-shedding, focusing on the impact of state capture on Eskom. But mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe was silent.

Due to the ongoing energy crisis, Ramaphosa cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this week.

The EFF confirmed its leaders participated in the meeting.

The party said Ramaphosa opened the meeting “with an objectionable and utterly false statement” that the government was not solely responsible for the provision of electricity and “we must all take responsibility”. This was not only objectionable but “ludicrous and irresponsible”.

EFF leader Julius Malema called on Ramaphosa to step down, saying he had repeatedly failed to provide electricity to the people of South Africa.

TimesLIVE

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