Image: Nomazima Nkosi
The DA plans to fix Eskom by unbundling the entity into two parts – generation and distribution.
On Friday, DA Eastern Cape premier candidate Nqaba Bhanga led a march to the Bethelsdorp north sub-station as part of the party’s nationwide #KeepTheLightsOn campaign.
Bhanga was joined by DA MP Yusuf Cassim, and MPLs Bobby Stevenson and Edmund van Vuuren.
“The people who have broken down our country and our province is the ANC government. The people who have broken down Eskom is the ANC government,” Bhanga said.
Bhanga then explained the DA’s solution to the country’s energy crisis
“The first would be a power generator and the other a distributor. In doing that, we would make sure to give power back to people and those who want to produce electricity can do so and they can even sell it to Eskom.
“The empowerment we’re talking about is not for big companies or a few politicians, but we want our people to contribute to generating electricity in order to sell it.”
Bhanga said the government was not accountable to its people and failed to produce electricity for its people.
“We have a government that is not accountable and a president who – when the lights go out – says he does not know why.
“For more than a week they did not have an idea of what was happening in South Africa and now, because we’re only left with 40 days to the elections, we have electricity.
“The issue of load-shedding is still with us because they have stopped it temporarily due to the elections. We feel load-shedding in every home.
“When it’s dark, our women and children are killed and raped. This load-shedding does not provide the safety and security that the government promised us,” Bhanga said.
Ngqura constituency leader Cassim said money meant for Eskom was stolen and redirected elsewhere, causing the situation the country was in.
“Our poorest communities suffer the most because they cannot afford to deal with the effects of load-shedding,” Cassim said.