THE African People’s Convention (APC) is calling for the removal of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Members marched to Eskom offices in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, on Thursday, 14 July, to hand over a memorandum of demands.
Among them were the supply of electricity to all as well as an end to load shedding and what it called the reckless implementation of renewable energy policies.
Party deputy chairman Ernest Hlathi said in any business, the head must take responsibility when it failed, but Gordhan was not doing this.
“Gordhan has indicated that the intention is not to collapse Eskom but to sell it to private companies. Our people are poor and unemployed. They can’t pay electricity to private companies,” he said.
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“SAA and Denel have fallen, and now it’s Eskom. When you touch Eskom, you are touching the nerve of the country. The economy is falling down. Small businesses are no longer operating as they used to. Who must take the blame? As minister, Pravin must take the blame. Pravin must fall. The president must be man enough to remove him from his position.”
Hlathi said the government was pressurising Eskom to move to sun and wind energy, which was too expensive.
“The country is already servicing debt of over R20 billion. Those machines are not here and they are dysfunctional, forgetting the cheap coal we have in our country,” he said.
“We cannot rely on something that is not ours. Let us use what we have. There is no load shedding in Europe, however, it is getting coal from our country. Eskom has the capacity to bring light to our houses but it is doing it intentionally to justify selling Eskom to private companies.”
The memorandum was received by a senior manager for maintenance Musa Mabila, who promised to forward it to the relevant people.
