EFF STATEMENT ON THE ESKOM TASK TEAM APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA

Saturday, 15 December, 2018

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the appointment of Eskom Sustainability Task Team, by President Cyril Ramaphosa. The appointment of this team is equal to setting up a parallel board; which will effectively render the board and management useless and redundant. If Ramaphosa did not have confidence in the current board and management, he should have dissolved them. It is our view that recent episodes of load shedding were staged in a deliberate attempt intended to rationalize the appointment of this parallel board.

The EFF is shocked by the inclusion of someone like Anton Eberhard; who sees no future at Eskom and has openly advocated for Independent Power Producers, to the benefit of a few companies and banks. It is despicable to appoint a person who does not believe in the Eskom; and charge them with saving Eskom from collapses.

Moreover, we express regrettable concern over the appointment of Brian Dames, who is the CEO of African Rainbow Energy and Minerals owned by Mr. Patrice Motsepe.

He also sits on the Old Mutual Board, that has made huge investments on renewables.

By appointing these people, Ramaphosa confirms our suspicion that there is a bigger, more sinister and more corrupt project to concentrate the power to produce electricity in the hands of few private hands. In essence, this team will crush Eskom's monopoly and make way for private, profit-driven, capitalist provision of electricity in South Africa.

Brian Dames is not competent, nor has he any capacity to make any recommendation, that will stabilize Eskom. He couldn't do it before, and he left Eskom in a far worse position than he found it as its chief executive.

The consequences of concentrating electricity in private hands, is that electricity will be expensive and many of our people, in particular black workers and the poor in general, will be left in the dark as they will not be able to afford electricity. The EFF call on progressive movements to reject Ramaphosa's attempt to crush Eskom, to the benefit of his family and friends. We further call on all stakeholders who are as concerned as us, about Eskom's privatization and IPPs, to reject it.

EFF believes that the future of South African energy security, is in a balance mix of coal, nuclear, renewables and gas through state-led, sustainable ,and cost efficient investment. Eskom, and all its assets, belong to the people of South Africa. The EFF will fight any attempt to privatize Eskom or sell its assets. To stabilize Eskom, government must cancel all IPPs with immediate effect.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 16 December 2018