Umamah Bakharia | ub@radioislam.co.za

2 min read
26 January 2023 | 10:30 AM CAT

Democratic Alliance (DA) supporters gathered in their masses on Wednesday to march in Johannesburg from Mary Fitzgerald Square to Luthuli House over load shedding.

Picture credit: Radio Islam International/ Umamah Bakharia

The opposition party claims that the governing party failed to fulfil its promise to resolve the country’s energy crisis.

Speaking at the march DA leader John Steehuisen says the party decided to Luthuli House instead of the Union buildings in Pretoria or Eskoms Megawatt Park because this is “[a] ANC manufactured electricity crisis.”

“If you’re serious about tackling the problem, you need to go straight to the source of the problem, and Luthuli House is ground zero of the electricity crisis in South Africa.”

Steenhuisen added: “That’s where the destruction of Eskom was engineered through the terrible outdated policy, through disgusting greed and corruption, and above all, through the deployment of useless and criminal cadres to the power utility.

Meanwhile, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) says the DA’s march is “misplaced” as the DA blames the ANC government for the failure of Eskom.

“We are even saying that the best place to vent our frustration and demand accountability is Megawatt Park not Luthuli House and the only reason that the DA has come here is to provoke the ANC knowing very well that the ANC does not run Eskom,” says ANCYL convener, Nonceba Mhlauli.

Meanwhile, the DA has approached the High Court to halt the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (NERSA) 18.65% tariff increase hike for the 2023/24 financial year.