Angry Gauteng residents confronted President Cyril Ramaphosa on his campaign trail on Monday, claiming that if there was no electricity by 1 November they would boycott the party.
In response to this Ramaphosa said that the threats were not justified and he cautioned them against parting ways with their political family. “This is our family. We stick together whether we like it or not. We cannot be saying ‘ANC out’ because there is no electricity. It doesn’t work like that. Instead, we need to solve the problem,” he said.
The president said that only the ANC could solve the electricity woes, only a week ahead of voting day.
Ramaphosa attributed the electricity crisis to old power substations, Eskom debt, cable theft and mushrooming back room shack, among other issues. He said residents were partially for the crisis.
“Part of the difficulties we have with electricity are caused by us. Another important thing is that, when the ANC took over in 1994, electricity was only being enjoyed by about 56% of the people, but today it is enjoyed by about 90% in the entire country. That’s because of the ANC. As government, we want everyone to have electricity,” he said.
He added that South Africa was not the only country to grapple with electricity shortages.
“We are not the only ones in the world with this problem of electricity that is sometimes weak and sometimes strong. Even in California, America, some years back, they had power shortages for a long time. Even us, we are going through a power shortage phase. And we are solving it.”
Sources: Times LIVE, The Daily Dispatch
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