Eskom vs Ekurhuleni: Blame Game continues while residents plunged into darkness
by Ald Tania Campbell — DA Leader in Ekurhuleni
Date: 03 June 2021
Release: Immediate
Type: Media Statement
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni is tackling the power outages head-on and we believe it is time for the blame games to stop and solutions to be implemented.
This comes after Eskom issued a media statement today, 3 June 2021, stating that the ANC and coalition partners* led City of Ekurhuleni has been in “violation of its loadshedding requirements”.
Eskom further stated that the City acknowledged that they were unable to implement loadshedding as required. Eskom ended the statement by saying “Customers from the City of Ekurhuleni are urged to contact the municipality directly regarding this matter.”
This ‘power struggle’ between the mismanaged ANC & coalition partners*-led Ekurhuleni, and the failing energy producer, Eskom, is a smack in the face to hard-working residents and businesses who bear the brunt of this public spat.
As the DA, we have been inundated with calls and complaints from frustrated businesses and residents who are struggling to stay afloat due to these rampant outages.
While South African’s are already being put through the inconvenience of load shedding, residents of Ekurhuleni now have to contend with an unreliable and unpredictable power supply that follows no schedule.
DA councillors have been working around the clock trying to seek answers from both the City and Eskom, with both blaming each other for the outages.
It is absolutely appalling that communities across the ANC and its coalition partners* governed metro have to tolerate such poor management. The lack and total disregard for peoples’ wellbeing is the exact reason why we have been so vocal on the uncaring ANC & coalition partners’* attitude.
We call on the ANC-appointed Executive Mayor, Cllr Mzwandile Masina, to get his house in order. It’s shocking that at such a trying time, neither the Mayor nor the City Manager is contactable.
Communities of Ekurhuleni deserve better. We have escalated this matter to our national structures and we will be holding those responsible to account. Residents and businesses have lost millions and some have lost their livelihood due to the uncaring attitude of this government.
We will continue to stand with businesses and residents. We will continue to hold those responsible to account. With the local government elections set for the 27 of October 2021, it is time to vote for a caring government.
#Time4Change
*ANC- Coalition Partners: African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Independent Ratepayers Association of South Africa (IRASA)
(Attached: Eskom issued Media Statement)
Ald Tania Campbell
DA Leader in Ekurhuleni
