Johannesburg - Calls by the DA for Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe to be booted out of office are growing louder.
The party compelled President Ramaphosa to demonstrate his seriousness over the abandonment of Nersa and Eskom's plans for increasing electricity prices by 18.65% on April 1 by first getting rid of Mantashe.
DA leader John Steenhuisen and his party have been at the forefront of trying to get Mantashe out.
“He claims his 'hands are tied' when it comes to electricity price hikes, but they certainly aren’t tied when it comes to several other crucial interventions, the first of which must be firing his useless, obstructive, corrupt, socialist energy minister.
“Mantashe is a major obstacle to urgently needed reform of South Africa’s electricity sector,” said Steenhuisen.
Without meaningful reform, South Africans will be paying more for electricity either way, whether through price increases or by taking on more Eskom debt, he warned.
“President Ramaphosa must not take South Africans for fools.
“We all know that either electricity price hikes or taxes are needed to pay for the ANC’s incompetence and corruption, and that the only way to bring real relief is to deal with the incompetence and corruption.
“If President Ramaphosa is serious about wanting to bring relief to South African households and businesses, he needs to grow a spine and use his considerable constitutional powers to rapidly implement the following reforms as a matter of urgency," added the DA leader.
He said some of the steps Ramaphosa should take include stopping the political interference in Eskom, preferably by replacing Gwede Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan; as well as ramping up security at all key Eskom sites and dealing decisively and harshly with saboteurs, among other suggestions.
“Of course, if President Ramaphosa really cared about the suffering of South African households and businesses, he needs to end the ANC’s policy of cadre deployment. This policy has produced an incapable state without democratic checks and balances which has enabled corruption and state capture on a grand scale,” according to Steenhuisen.
The Star