Former Eskom spokesman Sikonathi Mantshantsha says the ANC, and the ANC only, is responsible for South Africa’s electricity crisis, according to a report in Daily Investor
Eskom appointed Mantshantsha on 1 February 2020, shortly after André de Ruyter took the reins.
He had worked as a financial journalist at Media24, FinWeek, Fin24.com, Bloomberg, Business Day, Financial Mail, and Daily Maverick, and so understood the media well.
‘His extensive media experience, specifically within the energy industry, will benefit his transition into Eskom and allow him to adapt quickly to this dynamic environment’, De Ruyter said.
Mantshantsha was highly regarded as an approachable and knowledgeable spokesman.
He left Eskom at the end of February 2023, shortly after De Ruyter stepped down as CEO.
Eskom interim CEO Calib Cassim credited Mantshantsha for improving transparency and frequency of information sharing.
In April 2023, Mantshantsha joined News24’s business desk as a writer-at-large.
In a recent column he addressed the electricity crisis and recent claims to Parliament from Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa that no individual was responsible for Eskom’s deterioration and the country’s energy crisis.
Mantshantsha lambasted Ramokgopa: ‘This is pure nonsense. Maybe not one individual, no. But it is very clear that one party is culpable’.
‘The ANC is fully and entirely responsible for the crisis of electricity in South Africa for the past 17 years. Ramokgopa knows this. All of us do.’
‘We all know the ANC’s policies and its practice of cadre deployment; direct and indirect looting of state institutions are the instruments it employed to the great devastation of those institutions.’
This is the first time since his departure from Eskom that Mantshantsha has expressed his opinion so clearly on who is to blame for the mess at the power utility.