Cape Town - The streets of Cape Town were a sea of blue on Wednesday as masses of DA supporters joined the party’s “Power to the People” march.
The group headed for the ANC’s provincial head office to voice their anger and frustration over what they believed to be the ANC-engineered collapse of South Africa’s electricity system which has resulted in severe load shedding, as well as an imminent 18.65% electricity tariff hike.
The march to the ANC’s offices in Adderley Street coincided with another mass DA demonstration at the ruling party’s headquarters, Luthuli House, in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
About 500 protesters held up placards reading: “We are gatvol of load shedding”, “Time for ANC shedding” and a “Take the Power Back”.
Addressing the crowd, DA provincial leader Tertuis Simmers said: “We are here today to protest Eskom’s rolling blackouts – and yes, it’s blackouts, not load shedding.
“We are here today to protest for the reasons why we are left in the dark for four hours at a time. We are here today to protest against the dismally dysfunctional ANC government.
“Blackouts are one of the many ANC failures, but blackouts are a special failure of the ANC and a failed service of the ANC government which harms all of us equally.”
The DA was joined by other political parties, including the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) and the Cape Independence Party.
Leading the march was Western Cape Premier Alan Winde, who said: “We need to show that this country needs change. When the lights go out, we are going to find the fault and fix the fault ... It is up to us as the people of the country to fix this fault, at the very least to fix it in a year’s time at the voting polls.”
DA councillor JP Smith added: “We are marching to the ANC office and not Eskom because Eskom is not the source of the problem. The source is systematic looting of Eskom over more than a decade, we saw it happening in front of our eyes.”
Smith said the object of the march was to ensure the ANC was aware that attention was swivelling firmly to their role in mismanaging the state-owned enterprise over the last 20 years and the catastrophic consequences of its policies, cadre deployment and systematic looting at Eskom.
The DA arrived at their destination to find hordes of police and agitated members of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) waiting for them.
A group of about 100 ANC members said they were there to defend the “revolutionary” ANC offices and direct them to Eskom’s office in Bellville where the root of their gripes lay.
Police and ANC leaders had to stop angry ANC supporters aggressively pushing back against police as the DA marched past them. No memorandum was delivered to the offices as the DA bypassed the agitated ANC group and took an alternative route back after their programme concluded.
ANC leader in the Western Cape Cameron Dugmore said: “We are here to support the youth league because the ANCYL in Gauteng and the Western Cape took the decision to defend the ANC offices.
“We think it’s a bad practice for one political party to march to the offices of another political party. This a potential for conflict and misguided from the DA.
“This is the first time I have ever seen the DA marching with Winde, did they ever march against the hundreds of farmworkers that are being evicted, about the fact only 3% of agriculture land in this province is owned by coloured and African farmers, or even gender-based violence?” asked Dugmore.
ANCYL national leadership member Insaaf Isaacs said: “The ANCYL is not going to shy away from insisting that a motion in Parliament to review Nersa is registered and passed.
“We raise this with utter concern about the patterns in the electricity prices hikes … we stand firm in our call for an efficient and competent government and for the people with the tools and skills to make themselves available to contribute positively to that reform.”
ANC MP Faiez Jacobs said it was a national crisis and required accord across the spectrum in coming up with workable and sustainable solutions, therefore it was “blatantly expedient for a minority party such as the DA to exploit the nation’s suffering to advance their political agenda”.
“Sies DA, julle speel met ons mense se gevoelens. You can’t fix the Western Cape how can you fix Eskom?” he said.
Media Statement by Honourable Faiez Jacobs, MP
— #FJ22 🇿🇦 (@Faiezj) January 25, 2023
DA opportunism knows no limits
Cape Town, 25th January 2023:
We are all outraged at the ongoing power outages and the failure of Eskom to provide energy security. https://t.co/3CNHTscVNU
kristin.engel@inl.co.za