They have, once again, called for the head of Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, whose ministry is expected to take over the political responsibility of Eskom.
Opposition political parties rejected Eskom’s apparent plans for indefinite power cuts with “contempt.”
Parties, including the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Congress of the People (Cope), again, called for the head of the minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, whose ministry is expected to take over the political responsibility of running Eskom from the Department of Public Enterprises.
Parties also welcomed the request by President Cyril Ramaphosa to freeze or halt the pending 18.65% tariff increase granted to Eskom.
Over the weekend, Eskom management gave South Africans a glimpse of what to expect for the next two years and it does not look good, with permanent stage two and three all but guaranteed.
The DA said that this was the clearest admission, yet, by the African National Congress (ANC) government and Eskom that they failed to solve the electricity crisis.
Cope spokesperson Dennis Bloem, meanwhile, welcomed the call not to implement the tariff increase.
“Cope welcomes the announcement by President Ramaphosa that he has requested Eskom to freeze the 18.65% power tariff increase. We believe that it must be scrapped totally.”
This week would also see the DA’s so-called National Day of Action when the party marches to ANC headquarters to protest against load shedding and what it called an “unaffordable and unfair” electricity price hike.
By: Babalo Ndendze
For more information visit: ewn.co.za
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