EFF commander-in-chief Julius Malema has promised to solve the Eskom crisis which has recently plunged the country into the worst levels of load shedding since the start of democracy.
Last week, the power utility reported a staggering increase in the net loss after tax, which sky-rocketed to R23.9 billion from R11.9bn, demonstrating a precipitous financial decline. The Energy Availability Factor, a critical indicator of efficiency, plunged from 62.02% to 56.03%.
This is as the party kick-started its election campaign ahead of the 2024 general elections. He said the EFF was not preparing for elections but for the total victory that would emancipate the people of South Africa.
Malema was addressing a gathering of EFF ground forces at the Standard Bank Arena, Doornfontein yesterday.
“We will solve load shedding and as you do your door-to door campaigns, you must say it with confidence and we will do maintenance and we will talk to Russia to help us to build more power stations.
“We will talk to China to build more power stations. We are friends with Russia. We are friends with China. We tell them to help us for 30 years and transfer it back to us,“ he said.
Malema said the EFF was not opposed to independent power producers (IPPs), but as a party, they would ensure that IPPs compete with other sources of energy generation, including coal.
“We will make sure we do not rely on one source of energy. The EFF is not opposed to IPPs, whatever they are doing, and we will compete with them. We will solve this problem. The reason we can’t now is because the current government wants to give Eskom their friends and destroy Eskom,“ he said.
On the issue of Springboks, Malema said the Springboks were a symbol of white supremacy that should be dismantled.
“The Springboks are an apartheid symbol. We support rugby but this Springbok is the rugby of white people. We can’t say Rhodes must fall and the Springbok must not fall. Why are we being forced to salute the emblem that was saluted by Botha, Malan and De Klerk ‒ murderers who were killing and butchering our people. The jersey represents white supremacy,“ he said.
Malema said most road accidents were caused by trucks due to the sponsored collapse of Transnet and other SOEs which were crumbling due to interference from the ANC government.
“We need to go back to the trains and remove the trucks and stop road accidents during the festive season. We grew up drinking water but the ANC has come and taken away the water in Polokwane, even in towns. The infrastructure is old and finished because there has not been maintenance of water infrastructure.
“There is a problem of cash-in-transit crimes. The kingpins and the people who send people to commit this crime are known. When you do your door-to-door, tell them we do not have time for criminals who shoot against the police. Those criminals must be shot and killed.We are going to fight crime by ensuring all police commissioners are under lifestyle audits. Police generals and commissioners are richer than the rich people themselves,” he said.
The Star