Cape Town - A civic movement group calling itself #StandUpSA is planning a demonstration at Eskom headquarters in Sunninghill at the beginning of next month.
The group said load shedding is was crippling businesses and affecting the mental health of citizens in the country.
Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, the organiser and official spokesperson for the #StandUpSA Movement Khustaz Mtwentwe explained that the issue of load shedding had been ongoing for almost 15 years and they were fed up because they had given the deployees of the governing party time to resolve this matter and they had not done so.
"We are now going to send our list of demands to Eskom because we are taking further action. The deployees of the governing party the only thing they are good at is talk and they have been doing that for 15 years,"
"Now we have the list of our demands that comes straight from the people to send them to Eskom and these are their grievances, we will send them and if they do not respond we are going to the union buildings.
"For now we are still saying to them we don't have this 18% increase and we are not going to pay it, and that is the message we are taking to Eskom," Mtwentwe said.
He said that South African citizens wanted uninterrupted power supply.
"The victory here is very simple, the energy regulator that proposed this 18% they should scrap and that would be a victory for us. If they are willing to talk, we will talk and we are coming peacefully to say to them we have plans that are achievable.
"Our win is going to be a victory for all South Africans and at the same time we want electricity to be there in all our power stations," he said.
He further lashed out on the power utility Eskom, saying that it needed a plan and if the officials were not delivering as they were expected to, they should step aside.
Mtwentwe also said that they were demanding Eskom to have a proper record of what they had done and proper plans on how they were going to fix the damaged power stations that had since closed amid the heavy stages of load shedding.
"We are of the view that they are not taking any accountability to the nation about the current situation at Eskom. It will be a victory for us if they take accountability to the citizens and we are at the point where we don't believe in what they say any more," he said.
sibuliso.duba@inl.co.za
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