Gordhan hits back at Maimane for using death of 3-year-old 'for political mileage'

Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has hit back at Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane for “capitalising on the suffering of citizens for political mileage”.

This comes after Maimane laid a charge of murder against Gordhan and minister of electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa at the Cape Town Central police station on Monday after the death three-year-old Neyamiah Eaton.

Gordhan claimed Maimane was using Eaton's death to “score cheap political points”. 

“Minister Gordhan said it was disheartening that some political elements were so devoid of any empathy and were seeking to use the suffering caused by load-shedding to score cheap political points. Most notable in this regard were the attempts by Mmusi Maimane to capitalise on the suffering of citizens for political mileage,” the department of public enterprises said.

Gordan said the public enterprises department's decision to appeal the recent ruling by the Gauteng high court on load-shedding was about ensuring that current and ongoing efforts to stabilise the national grid were not compromised due to the ongoing need to balance supply and demand for electricity.

He said the department had already initiated efforts with the health department and Eskom to identify 213 hospitals for exclusion from load-shedding to ensure continuous power supply. 

Out of these hospitals, 76 were already excluded, while work to exempt a further 46 is under way.

“The department initiated the work to segregate these hospitals, working with the health department. As government, we are continuously working to determine what other facilities can be isolated from the integrated grid. In certain instances it is not possible.

“It is regrettable that as a country we do not have an adequate supply of electricity. This is the reason we have load-shedding, and our efforts are targeted at ensuring that our generation capacity is urgently increased. 

“The load-shedding that is affecting families, schools, health care and business facilities is regrettable. This is not willful and it is not in the absence of continued and determined efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of load-shedding," Gordhan said.

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