/ 13 December 2014

Zuma: Electricity problems apartheid’s fault

A secret report reveals how millions flowed to Zuma.
A secret report reveals how millions flowed to Zuma.

“The problem [is] the energy was structured racially to serve a particular race, not the majority,” Zuma told delegates at the Young Communist League’s congress in Cape Town.

He said the ANC had inherited the power utility from the previous regime which had only provided electricity to the white minority. 

Twenty years into democracy, 11-million households had access to electricity, double the number in 1994, Zuma said in a speech prepared for delivery. Government was taking action to address the energy situation.

The development of the Medupi and Kusile power stations was being accelerated in order to bring them on to the grid.

“Projects in the region with the potential to produce power in the short term are being assessed and we continue to evaluate options with the intention to maximise all sources of energy including coal, gas, nuclear, solar and renewable energy options”, Zuma said. 

Earlier this week, Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Mmusi Maimane said Eskom must declare the rolling blackouts a national crisis. 

 “The president, the public enterprises minister and Eskom must come clean and acknowledge that load shedding is indicative of a national electricity crisis,” said Maimane.

“Now more than ever we need to see transparency and honesty from government on the full extent of the crisis, and the plans in place to solve it.” â€“ Sapa