The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to follow on the heels of former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter by resigning over the Eskom crisis.
The EFF made this call after Ramaphosa met with opposition parties and the Eskom board in a bid to solve the Eskom crisis, which has seen the country plunged into stage 6 load shedding since the start of the year.
The EFF said Ramaphosa and the Eskom board had failed to bring solutions that would return Eskom to its normal operations in 24 months time, adding Ramaphosa had absolved himself of any blame in the matter.
The party said Ramaphosa made false and objectionable statements when he addressed them over Eskom.
“In a meeting, Mr Ramaphosa opened with an objectionable and utterly false statement that the government is not solely responsible for the provision of electricity and that we must all take responsibility. After the objectionable opening of the meeting, Mr Ramaphosa, Eskom board members, the CEO of the energy crisis committee made presentations, which basically conceded that Eskom and the entire government are not in a position to resolve South Africa’s electricity crisis within the next 24 months,” the EFF said.
The EFF added it had accepted De Ruyter’s resignation and would be happy to also accept the president’s resignation.
“The EFF CIC, Julius Malema, then proceeded to categorically say that the second person who must resign is Mr Cyril Ramaphosa because he had repeatedly and perennially failed to provide electricity to the people of South Africa. The CIC said that Mr Ramaphosa must take full responsibility for the jobs that are being lost and small businesses that are closing due to lack of electricity. He said Ramaphosa has blood on his hands because people are losing lives when electricity-dependent life support systems and machines are switched off,” the party said.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya had not responded to WhatsApp questions sent at the time of going to publication.
This week, Ramaphosa cancelled his Davos trip, where he was scheduled to travel to for the World Economic Forum summit, an annual meeting of world leaders, business and civil society, which runs from Monday until Friday.
Ramaphosa was due to promote South Africa as an investment destination, a position many citizens believe we are drifting away from due to the challenges facing the country.