DA MP warns 'criminal syndicate' ANC of 'vote-shedding' at election time

DA MP Geordin Hill-Lewis claims that ANC leaders profited from destroying Eskom and should therefore not be surprised by load-shedding.

Speaking during the second day of the debate on last week's state of the nation address (Sona), Hill-Lewis dubbed the ANC a criminal syndicate and accused President Cyril Ramaphosa of being its face.

Referring to comments made by Ramaphosa on Monday that he was "shocked and angry" at widespread load-shedding across the country, which started again on Sunday after a brief hiatus since mid-December, Hill-Lewis said: “The ANC-owned Hitachi Africa ... built the boilers for Medupi ... Now that the boilers are failing, the president tells us he is 'shocked and angry' at load-shedding.”

Geordin Hill-Lewis said every time there were power outages, jobs were lost.

With load-shedding bouncing between stage 2 and unprecedented stage 4 since Sunday, Hill-Lewis warned that it would cost the ANC votes in the upcoming elections. “On May 8, there’s going to be stage 4 ANC vote-shedding,” he said in the National Assembly.

He said despite Ramaphosa announcing the unbundling of Eskom into three separate entities, the ANC’s headquarters, Luthuli House, would not let it happen. “This just confirms [that] they hired you as the new face of the criminal syndicate, but it's the same criminals still running it," the MP told Ramaphosa.

"This is not a nine-year Zuma phenomenon; it is the permanent character of the ANC.” 

Hill-Lewis added to the chorus of opposition leaders who used the Sona debate to question Ramaphosa’s role during what he has deemed "nine wasted years" under former president Jacob Zuma.

“The truth is that the ANC set the house on fire and is now asking for five more years to put the fire out. While the president peddles hope, the country is asking: 'How did we get here, who got us here, and, Mr President, what were you doing when you were there all that time?'”

The DA MP further accused the ANC of "eating" at the public's expense, questioning why there has been no jail time for those implicated in state capture, Life Esidemeni and Marikana, and in particular for Zuma.