Minister Lynn Brown and President Jacob Zuma must take the fall for the mess at Eskom

The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes and supports the newly appointed Eskom Board to be headed by its new Chairperson Bonang Mohale. The mess at Eskom represents a real crisis for the entire economy and is a sad reminder that the second term of President Jacob Zuma did not only reverse the gains of the first term – but that it actually threatened the independence of this country and reverse 106 years of respect and loyalty enjoyed by the ANC. This standing by the ANC was earned in bitter struggles amongst our people and internationally and countless comrades have sacrificed their lives for it.

This is why we are reiterating our call for President Jacob Zuma to go and for Minister Lynn Brown to be fired. We do understand and commend the ANC leadership in its commitment to ensure that President Jacob Zuma is not humiliated; but we feel that the economy cannot afford to carry him any longer. He has humiliated many poor people of this country by allowing this wide scale looting to take place.

This has worsened the situation for millions of working families, including widespread cuts and reversal in progressive policy pronouncements accompanying radical economic transformation.  If the ANC leadership is not decisive, this will result in widespread austerity attacks against working people.

The country is daily berated by the rating agencies, the IMF and World Bank for inadequate compliance to neoliberal policy demands because of this reckless mismanagement of the economy and endemic corruption. The federation will ensure that the workers are not forced to pay the price for something that is not of their own doing at Eskom and in the public sector in general.

Statement issued by Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU 22 January 2018