ID'S LANCE GREYLING WANTS ANC TO GIVE HITACHI SHARE PROFITS TO NELSON MANDELA CHILDREN'S FUND

Lance Greyling, the ID spokesperson for energy says ANC Treasurer-General Mathews Phosa's promise that Chancellor House would divest its shares in Hitachi Power Africa in the next 6 weeks ‘will have to be seen to be believed.

‘This is not the first time we have heard such a promise from Phosa, but this time around the ANC is under far more pressure to do the right thing,' Mr Greyling says, referring to Phosa's similar promise 2 years ago.

Greyling's campaign to ensure the ANC did not profit from the electricity crisis and electricity price increases saw him writing to the World Bank over a month ago, requesting that it withhold the Eskom loan until the ANC had divested its shares.

‘This has been a very tough campaign, especially given the fact that the ANC has been more interested in putting its own interests before those of ordinary South Africans and the poor,' says Greyling.

‘For my letter to the World Bank I was called "unpatriotic" by the Minister of Energy Dipou Peters, a laughable accusation considering that I was standing up for good, clean governance.

‘In fact, it is the ANC that has once again been unpatriotic. As with the Arms Deal, Oilgate and a number of other party funding controversies, ANC leaders put their own and their party's pockets before those of the common person,' Greyling says.

The ID Chief Whip says the possible success of his campaign ‘points to the tremendous activist power ordinary South Africans have when it comes to protecting our own interests from the narrow, selfish interests of the ruling party.

‘The irony that Chancellor House was named after Nelson Mandela's law firm has not been lost on us. Indeed, the direction taken by the ANC has been a source of huge disappointment to the ID,' says Greyling.

‘We therefore call on the ANC to take the huge profits it is going to earn if it actually sells its Hitachi shares and pay them directly into the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund.

‘Phosa himself committed the ANC 2 years ago to do a transparent divestment of the Hitachi shares so the public knows exactly how much profit Chancellor House accrues,' Greyling says.

‘We must remember that the ANC bought its shares in Hitachi Power Africa shortly before the Eskom deal was signed, which means that the value of these shares has probably increased phenomenally since then.

Statement issued by the Independent Democrats, April 11 2010

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