Stellenbosch’s commitment to becoming the first municipality to free itself of load-shedding by exploring alternative electricity sources shows how South Africans can take control and free themselves from the ‘suffocating grip on power production’ that is one of the ANC government’s biggest failures.
So said the IRR in a statement yesterday.
Stellenbosch’s first step in challenging Eskom’s monopoly on supplying the electricity on which a thriving and successful economy depends ‘shows how South Africans can take control to fix the government’s failures’.
The IRR said: ‘Eskom’s suffocating grip on power production and distribution has failed to provide the sustainable and consistent power supply our homes and businesses depend on. This has placed a stifling cap on economic growth prospects and the socio-economic progress South Africans desperately need. For far too long, Eskom has been part of the problem, not the solution.’
The IRR has launched its own petition with a list of proposals to begin solving the crisis at Eskom. The document is to be sent to Minister of Energy Gwede Mantashe.
The IRR identifies BEE as one of the key reasons for Eskom’s decline.
It argues: ‘The ANC’s dependence on its corrupt patronage networks has seen it parachuting unqualified cadres of the governing party into positions that require competence and expertise. Race-based policies such as BEE, better described as “Blatant Elite Enrichment”, have led to the loss of skilled Eskom employees, simply because of the ANC’s insistence on clinging to apartheid-era racial classifications.
‘As a consequence of government failures, Eskom is, for all intents and purposes, bankrupt. This bankruptcy in turn compels taxpayers time and time again to foot the bailout bills for the ANC’s failures.’
[Picture: Fmalan, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8352289]