Soweto Protests: ANC must march against its own.

13 May 2015

The Democratic Alliance in Soweto Calls for the ANC to march against The City of Johannesburg Municipality and not Eskom as planned (see BDLive report).

It is the City of Johannesburg that took a decision to have both City Power and Eskom supply electricity to its residents.

We have always maintained that it doesn’t make sense to have 2 separate entities supplying power in one Municipality.

For weeks now, the residents of Soweto have been protesting violently over basic service delivery with electricity at number 1.

We have come out STRONGLY against VIOLENT protests and we still CONDEMN them but we understand the residents’ frustration.

It is also very suspect that just a few days after the residents of Orlando protested for flat rates, their electricity supply was halted for about 10 hours.

We call on the City of Johannesburg to take responsibility for failing the people of Soweto and not shift the blame to Eskom.

We call on the ANC to hold its own accountable and not look for the easy way out, marching against Eskom is too easy.

In response to the power crisis, we believe that we should introduce Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

I will therefore still be putting forward a motion at the next sitting of Parliament, requesting an urgent debate in the House regarding this matter. 

Statement issued by Tsepo Mhlongo MP, DA Constituency Head: Soweto, May 13 2015