By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced that they will be organising a major protest march to the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on 25 January against the electricity crisis.
On Saturday, DA leader John Steenhuisen confirmed that his party is “organising a major protest march to the ANC headquarters at Luthuli House in Johannesburg on 25 January”.
He said the protest is “against the ANC-engineered electricity crisis”.
Steenhuisen said the South African wouldn’t be able to survive an electricity tariff increase of 18.65%, especially not since the “ongoing stage 6 load-shedding costs SA R4 billion a day.”
He said the tariff increase must be rejected because it will “only worsen the cost of [the] living crisis”.
He added: “Far too many citizens are barely able to keep their heads above water. This 18.65% Nersa increase is like a government jackboot pushing more of us under the surface.”
Steenhuisen also requested to meet with President Cyril Ramaphosa regarding the “deepening electricity crisis”.
In an open letter addressed to the president, Steenhuisen wrote: “I would like to understand the reason for the failure, to date, to implement meaningful reforms to the energy sector”.
Steenhuisen said South Africa does not have the “built-in resilience” to survive stage 6 load shedding.
Furthermore, he wants to understand why the ANC “has been so lethargic and conservative in its response to this catastrophe”.