South Africa should continue supplying its neighbours with power, African National Congress (ANC) secretary general Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday at the launch of the party’s Energy Efficiency Campaign.
Mantashe said he did not want South Africa to be an ”island of prosperity in a sea of poverty”.
”I would like to emphasise that we should not stop supplying the power we have due to our own challenges in South Africa … it is foolhardy of us to think that we can have an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty.
”Our economy is interlinked with those of the region,” he said.
”We should not let this challenge drive us to xenophobia. We don’t want to squeeze and kill our neighbours.”
He said South Africa should interact with its neighbours in terms of importing electricity as well.
The ANC’s Energy Efficiency Campaign encouraged citizens to use electricity efficiently.
”Just switching off the lights that you don’t need, or switching off the geyser when you leave the house, seem small efforts, but they will save a huge amount of power,” Mantashe said.
The ANC’s campaign, themed ”Conserve electricity today so that we have it tomorrow”, will see ANC members going door to door to hand out pamphlets with energy-conserving tips.
The campaign is aimed at reducing planned power cuts, keeping the country productive, providing stable electricity to allow Eskom to maintain its power stations and growing electricity reserves.
The brightly coloured pamphlet printed in ANC colours provides advice on power conservation — for example, using energy-saving light bulbs, electric kettles instead of boiling water on the stove and taking showers instead of baths.
Mantashe emphasised that the party’s campaign is complementary to the government’s energy saving campaign.
He said he did not believe South Africa will see negative economic growth due to the power challenges.
While he thought the power cuts might bring about a slowdown in the economy’s growth rate, he remained optimistic that South Africa’s economy will reach its 6%-plus growth target. — Sapa