‘Are you a minister or content creator?’ — Maimane questions Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s duties

Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has come under fire for his social media updates about visiting automotive manufacturing plants, with many saying he was “gallivanting” and creating content instead of attending to the electricity crisis. 

This week Ramokgopa visited the BMW and Nissan manufacturing plant in Rosslyn, Pretoria. 

“The crisis we are facing requires we should take bold, courageous and decisive action to close the electricity gap,” he said. 

“The extensive stakeholder engagement programme with the original equipment manufacturers is a call for the automotive industry to be part of the solution in mitigating the energy scarcity that has an adverse impact on the economy.”

The minister also met with Mercedes-Benz SA board chairperson Wilfried Porth to engage with the manufacturer “on cementing possible short to medium-term solutions to mitigate their electricity challenges that have an adverse impact on the economy in the Eastern Cape”.

“Are you a minister or a content creator?” Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane asked Ramokgopa. 

“How are any of these meetings going to address the 10 hours of load-shedding the country is going through every day?”

EFF leader Julius Malema said Ramokgopa, who served as Tshwane mayor from 2010 to 2016, won’t improve the performance of Eskom’s power plants.

He alleged Ramokgopa was corrupt and collapsed the ANC leadership in Tshwane. 

“Sputla is corrupt. He collapsed that ANC leadership in Tshwane. [For] Tshwane to be where it is today is [because of] Sputla. South Africans, you are so gullible that a person collapses a municipality [and] you say he can restore such as complex matter as electricity,” said Malema. 

“We don't want a minister of electricity. Take the electricity from public enterprises [department] and put it into energy [department], that's where it's supposed to be. The minister of electricity, he must go, he's being paid a lot of money that we do not have.

“In the next two weeks we have been warned there is going to be darkness. We are almost at a point of grid collapse. It’s a reality that South Africans must know we are heading to darkness and ANC politicians are continuing as usual as if we are not in a crisis. We are heading for a disaster worse than the Covid-19 pandemic was.”

Many on social media weighed in on Ramokgopa's visits to automotive manufacturing plants, calling them a a “PR stunt”. 

Here is a snapshot of some reactions.

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