Cape Town - Faced with excessive load shedding, sky-high fuel prices and the indiscriminate killing of people, a group of concerned members of the South Africa First Forum marched to the gates of Parliament on Monday to express the everyday frustrations of ordinary South Africans.
The The group was joined by other like-minded civil society organisations and South Africans when they handed over a memorandum to the Presidency demanding load shedding come to an end; the sacking of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, and Police Minister Bheki Cele for failing in their portfolios; a new and experienced CEO for Eskom; and a reduction in the high taxes on fuel and fixed surcharges on electricity.
The memorandum stated: “As you are aware, ordinary South Africans have had enough and are extremely unhappy about the general degradation of our quality of life in South Africa.
“In every home or place of work, South Africans are expressing their frustration at this state of affairs and the continuous excuses we receive from those in authority. We thus took this decision to march to Parliament today and hand over this memorandum to you.”
Advocate and SA First Forum convener Rod Solomons said they held the march on Nelson Mandela Day to make those in authority aware that ordinary South Africans were “gatvol” of the spiralling situation in the country.
The group implored the Presidency to take charge of the situation before things got so bad that ordinary South Africans resorted to civil disobedience and unrest.
“South Africa is one of the countries with the highest taxes on fuel as well as fixed surcharges on electricity. This makes it extremely difficult for consumers to make ends meet,” Solomons said.
In support of the march, the Green Connection strategic lead Liziwe McDaid said energy was critical to livelihoods and survival, thus a national integrated energy plan was needed where all South Africans could participate in deciding together what the country’s energy future should look like.
Stop CoCT founder Sandra Dickson said: “Consumers are fed up and deserve to be heard. The current occupants of positions in government, such as policing and energy, are way off the mark and grossly under-performing. The people of South Africa must be heard and they deserve much better.”
Gilbert Martin, founder of We Are South Africans, a civil society movement, added that they were not planning any shut downs due to the negative effects it would have on business and people, but they were pursuing litigation against multiple ministers, government departments and State Owned Entities.
“We will impose the will of the people on this and future dispensations as the government of South Africa has gone far enough in destroying the lives, livelihoods and future of the people,” Martin said.
