ANC is to blame for Eskom mess, but SCOPA chair shoots the ‘messenger’ for pointing it out

Issued by Benedicta van Minnen MP – DA Member of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
23 Apr 2022 in News

Please find an attached soundbite by Benedicta van Minnen MP 

Eskom’s board and CEO, André de Ruyter, acknowledge that the Eskom’s problems stem from a culture of impunity and ineptness by their shareholder, the ANC government, as well as an ecosystem of entrenched corruption, a skill shortage due to an ongoing skills flight abroad, a lack of time and money caused by bad planning and delays, poor timing, and a culture of impunity and ineptness by Eskom’s shareholder, the ANC government.

The ANC’s corruption and incompetence are totally to blame for the current crisis at Eskom, and in the country, and everyone knows who the elephant in the room is.

Busisiwe Mavuso, an Eskom board member and CEO of Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) echoed this sentiment. She came clean and honestly called out the facts as they are after months of baiting by ANC members of Scopa, pointing out that this situation was created by the ANC, and that the false outrage by some members of Scopa was almost comic in its pantomime outrage.

The DA believes Mavuso was accurate in pointing out that the crisis at Eskom was the “ANC’s mess” and was caused by ANC corruption and ineptitude, and that she should be praised for telling it like it is to the very committee tasked with investigating what is wrong with the entity.

However, instead of being thanked for her honesty, she was asked to leave the meeting by the Chair – which begs the question of his role – a member of the IFP why was he covering up for the ANC and not allowing the truth to come out? And we know this is true as he subsequently castigated the journalists in the room who put the facts out into the public domain. What is he covering up?

For once the truth was being told to Parliamentarians and the ANC and IFP did not like it. Perhaps it is time to demand that Scopa be chaired by a real member of the Opposition who actually can, and does, hold the government to account.

It is thus beholden to the DA to ensure the facts get out there, that the elephant be named, and that we continue to expose the real reasons for Eskom failure.