Load-shedding was ended by the sixth administration and not by the GNU.
This is according to EFF leader Julius Malema who on Thursday said the GNU should not claim credit for achievements of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration.
The country is approaching 200 days without load-shedding, a milestone that had not been achieved in years since power cuts became regular. Malema argues this feat was a result of the work done under Ramaphosa's sixth administration. The administration introduced several interventions, including the Energy Action Plan and the appointment of Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as the minister solely responsible for electricity.
“They solved load-shedding in the sixth administration, it was not solved by this [administration],” said Malema. “There was never load-shedding when the seventh administration was introduced, it was stopped before. So they must not claim the victories of the sixth administration. They didn’t stop load-shedding it was stopped then.”
He added the EFF believed the ending of load-shedding on the eve of elections was an electioneering ploy and the party does not believe it has genuinely ended.
Malema said that 100 days of the GNU has come and gone and it has achieved nothing.
“The GNU didn’t create anything positive for our people, nothing in the 100 days,” he said.
The GNU was established by Ramaphosa who invited different political parties to help him form a government after his ANC failed to achieve a clear majority in the May polls. It has been in place for just over 100 days.
Malema argues that South Africa has regressed in the GNU, which includes the EFF’s enemy, the DA. He said there are retrenchments in the mining sector (Seriti Resources seek to cut its workforce by more than 1,000), Drip Footwear was facing liquidation and Telkom plans to cut 1,200 jobs.
He said the rhetoric of growing investor confidence was also a sham as there is no booming infrastructural development anywhere in the country.
“There is no area where there are no retrenchments but we are told GNU is working. Show me which areas are the jobs being created because I only see workers being retrenched, I only see jobs being lost and I can tell you where jobs are being lost. If you argue that GNU is working, show me where they are hiring people today, show me,” said Malema. “The economy of South Africa as we speak today is retrenching. Under the GNU [they say] there is confidence of the GNU, there is investor confidence, but there is retrenchment.”
The EFF wanted to join the GNU but only if it excluded the DA. The party chose to stay out after the DA signed the memorandum of intent, saying they would not want to be in the same government with the DA.
“So please stop lying to us and saying there are jobs being created, there are no jobs being created, there is no investor confidence because investor confidence must industrialise, must produce jobs, must develop infrastructure. Where is huge infrastructural development in South Africa?”
Malema also took a swipe at his former close friend and now political nemesis, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, saying he has become the biggest defender of the GNU, even overtaking Ramaphosa.
Mbalula is now willing to rein in anyone who speaks negatively about the GNU, said Malema. This was in reference to the summoning of the ANC Gauteng chair Panyaza Lesufi to Luthuli House on Monday by Mbalula for what he said were worrisome negative public remarks made by Lesufi about the GNU.
“Why is Mbalula defending GNU even more than the person who came with the GNU, Ramaphosa,” said Malema.
“I mean Ramaphosa is very reasonable about it, Mbalula is not reasonable about it. You speak against it you will get a letter ‘what are you saying’. When you arrive there Ramaphosa says ‘hey what are you doing here’, you say ‘no I’m called here’, he says ‘there’s no explanation you are released, I don’t understand what this guy is talking about’.”
TimesLIVE
GNU has done nothing and can't say it ended load-shedding: Malema
EFF says the end of power cuts was election ploy and load-shedding will return
Image: Thapelo Morebudi
Load-shedding was ended by the sixth administration and not by the GNU.
This is according to EFF leader Julius Malema who on Thursday said the GNU should not claim credit for achievements of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration.
The country is approaching 200 days without load-shedding, a milestone that had not been achieved in years since power cuts became regular. Malema argues this feat was a result of the work done under Ramaphosa's sixth administration. The administration introduced several interventions, including the Energy Action Plan and the appointment of Kgosientsho Ramokgopa as the minister solely responsible for electricity.
“They solved load-shedding in the sixth administration, it was not solved by this [administration],” said Malema. “There was never load-shedding when the seventh administration was introduced, it was stopped before. So they must not claim the victories of the sixth administration. They didn’t stop load-shedding it was stopped then.”
He added the EFF believed the ending of load-shedding on the eve of elections was an electioneering ploy and the party does not believe it has genuinely ended.
Malema said that 100 days of the GNU has come and gone and it has achieved nothing.
“The GNU didn’t create anything positive for our people, nothing in the 100 days,” he said.
The GNU was established by Ramaphosa who invited different political parties to help him form a government after his ANC failed to achieve a clear majority in the May polls. It has been in place for just over 100 days.
Malema argues that South Africa has regressed in the GNU, which includes the EFF’s enemy, the DA. He said there are retrenchments in the mining sector (Seriti Resources seek to cut its workforce by more than 1,000), Drip Footwear was facing liquidation and Telkom plans to cut 1,200 jobs.
He said the rhetoric of growing investor confidence was also a sham as there is no booming infrastructural development anywhere in the country.
“There is no area where there are no retrenchments but we are told GNU is working. Show me which areas are the jobs being created because I only see workers being retrenched, I only see jobs being lost and I can tell you where jobs are being lost. If you argue that GNU is working, show me where they are hiring people today, show me,” said Malema. “The economy of South Africa as we speak today is retrenching. Under the GNU [they say] there is confidence of the GNU, there is investor confidence, but there is retrenchment.”
The EFF wanted to join the GNU but only if it excluded the DA. The party chose to stay out after the DA signed the memorandum of intent, saying they would not want to be in the same government with the DA.
“So please stop lying to us and saying there are jobs being created, there are no jobs being created, there is no investor confidence because investor confidence must industrialise, must produce jobs, must develop infrastructure. Where is huge infrastructural development in South Africa?”
Malema also took a swipe at his former close friend and now political nemesis, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, saying he has become the biggest defender of the GNU, even overtaking Ramaphosa.
Mbalula is now willing to rein in anyone who speaks negatively about the GNU, said Malema. This was in reference to the summoning of the ANC Gauteng chair Panyaza Lesufi to Luthuli House on Monday by Mbalula for what he said were worrisome negative public remarks made by Lesufi about the GNU.
“Why is Mbalula defending GNU even more than the person who came with the GNU, Ramaphosa,” said Malema.
“I mean Ramaphosa is very reasonable about it, Mbalula is not reasonable about it. You speak against it you will get a letter ‘what are you saying’. When you arrive there Ramaphosa says ‘hey what are you doing here’, you say ‘no I’m called here’, he says ‘there’s no explanation you are released, I don’t understand what this guy is talking about’.”
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