'Luthuli House is not a playground for other political parties': Pule Mabe slams DA

Outgoing ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe says Luthuli House is not a playground for other political parties “trying to garner mileage”.

Mabe on Wednesday slammed the DA’s “Power To The People March”, saying the ANC would not accept a memorandum from the party.

Addressing media outside the ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, he said the DA's march was a waste of time.

“The ANC will not be receiving any memorandum from the DA. Luthuli House is not a playground for other political parties that are trying to garner mileage. They must not do this. The country is facing electricity challenges,” he said.

Mabe said the ANC had dispatched its youth league to welcome the DA because “they are their size” and party officials were busy with other matters.

He said Luthuli House was not a power station and the DA was grandstanding.

“There is no power station here, so they are provocative, opportunistic and effectively grandstanding. They must stop doing that. It looks like this is a performance measure for DA leaders.

“Have you ever had us in the ANC saying we're going to march to the DA or to any other political party? They should have listened to other fellow opposition parties who warned them against such an action,” Mabe said.

The DA march to Luthuli House was to voice outrage at the “ANC-engineered electricity crisis”.

The party said it was time to stop the ANC’s destruction of the country’s energy infrastructure and economy.

“Why did we choose to bring the fight against load-shedding and the destruction of Eskom here to the ANC? The answer is simple: If you are serious about tackling the problem, you need to go straight to the source. And that building there, Luthuli House, is ground zero of our electricity crisis,” said DA leader John Steenhuisen.

“That is where the destruction of Eskom was engineered through terrible, outdated policy, through disgusting greed and corruption and, above all, through the deployment of useless and often criminal cadres to the state power utility.”

Previously, EFF leader Julius Malema said the DA should avoid marching to Luthuli house.

“A party shouldn’t march to another party. In case you are not good with directions, the seat of power is at the Union Buildings, not Luthuli House. Be warned,” Malema said.