South Africa’s opposition political party, Democratic Alliance (DA), is calling for the dismissal of the country’s Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Gwede Mantashe, over the country’s energy crisis.
South Africa’s power utility company, Eskom, has been implementing load shedding due to a shortfall in power generation.
In a statement issued Tuesday, DA noted that the threat of stage ‘6’ load shedding highlights the failures of the governing African National Congress (ANC) and, in particular, a string of energy ministers and Eskom war rooms led by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s first and later by Deputy President, David Mabuza.
“The ongoing silence by Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe and Pravin Gordhan is proof that they are little more than bystanders in a crisis of their own making.
“In our call to Cabinet for the State of Disaster to be declared on Eskom and the electricity sector, we cautioned that South Africa’s 15-year-old load shedding crisis requires a ‘whole of society’ approach that is anchored on making electricity generation the biggest priority for the country in the next 5 years,” the Democratic Alliance said in a statement.
Eskom has warned of a possibility of stage ‘6’ load shedding during the evening peak, blaming the intensified level of power cuts on the loss of generation capacity overnight as well as the unlawful industrial action by its workers.
The DA said Mantashe, as the Minister responsible for securing South Africa’s electricity needs and planning its energy future, has been obstructive and combative in his approach to dealing with proposed solutions.
The party’s shadow Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Kevin Mileham said Mantashe deserved to be singled out.
Due to unlawful industrial action, Stage 6 loadshedding will regretfully be implemented at 16:00 until 22:00 this evening. Stage 4 will then continue to be implemented until midnight. pic.twitter.com/BEJZLMcjr3
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) June 28, 2022
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com