Cape Town- DA leader Mmusi Maimane is expected to outline the party’s short, medium and long-term plans to deal with the country’s energy crisis.
Maimane will be joined by DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, Natasha Mazzone and DA Western Cape Premier Candidate Alan Winde.
The DA’s announcement comes just a few hours before President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to make an announcement about Eskom during his reply in the debate on his State of the Nation Address.
Mazzone said: “We will be tabling some suggestions that we hope Government will consider because this has become a national crisis.”
Last Thursday, Winde visited a small business in Mitchells Plain which has been severely affected by load-shedding.
“Small business owner, Nawaz Sablay, told me that Eskom’s failure to provide power has resulted in his produce spoiling due to irregular refrigeration, and production stops. This is just one example of a business which is bearing the cost of an inept national government power utility which is pouring the tax funds of ordinary South Africans down the drain,” Winde said.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, it emerged in the parliamentary public enterprise portfolio committee that Eskom is scrambling to keep the lights on as the company is technically insolvent and, at the current trajectory, would not survive beyond April.
Acting director-general of the Public Enterprises Department, Thuto Shomang, had said the construction of the Medupi and Kusile power stations had suffered massive delays and cost overruns due to poor planning, poor engineering designs, poor procurement practices or poor contracting and corruption.