The Democratic Alliance (DA) in South Africa is set to march to the headquarters of the governing African National Congress (ANC) in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning to protest against the country’s ongoing power cuts and the recent 18.65% electricity tariff hike granted to Eskom by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).
The party leader, John Steenhuisen, stated that the march will specifically target Luthuli House, as it is the “scene of the crime that the ANC continues to perpetrate against the people of South Africa through permanent stage 6 load shedding and the latest 18.65% electricity tariff increase.”
The DA is accusing the ANC of destroying the country’s energy infrastructure and economy and is calling for an end to the rolling power cuts, the ANC’s cadre deployment policy, and corruption. The party also wants the 19% tariff hike granted to Eskom by Nersa to be stopped.
Steenhuisen also added that, “It is at Luthuli House where, over the past three decades, the decisions were made to ‘deploy’ the corrupt and incompetent cadres who plundered and destroyed Eskom. It is at Luthuli House that corrupt tenders were handed out, including for the ill-fated construction of the Medupi and Kusile power stations that have cost our country so dearly.”
This march is part of a broader campaign by the DA to challenge the ANC’s cadre deployment policy in court. The party is also planning to march in the Western Cape, where members will take their protest to the ANC’s provincial office in Cape Town’s CBD on Wednesday afternoon.
The ANC has described the march as a misplaced agenda, and members of the ANC Youth League have promised to redirect the marchers to Eskom for answers and solutions to the power crisis. This is not the first time that one party has marched on the offices of the other, in 1994, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) marched to the ANC offices, which turned violent and claimed at least 19 lives.
