Cape Town - Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has the wrong end of the stick by blaming technical issues for the country’s energy crisis, Al Jama-ah said on Thursday.
The energy minister was recently quoted as saying: “The challenges that we have had here (at Kusile Power Station) have nothing to do with the so-called corruption.”
He said he should be given an opportunity to engage at station level.
But Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks said Ramokgopa was set to disappoint the nation by not taking a firm stand against corruption at the country’s power stations.
Hendricks said his party supported the National Mineworkers Union for rejecting Ramakgopa’s findings that technical issues, and not corruption, were to blame for the energy crisis.
“There is a criminal syndicate at every power station in the country where key officials are implicated.
“We call on the minister to take a firm stand by dismantling the criminal syndicates and to put in place emergency powers,” he said.
Hendricks said Ramokgopa should start at Medupi Power Station in Lephalale in Limpopo where corruption was at its worst.
The official opposition has also condemned Ramokgopa’s comments, saying he appeared to brush away legitimate concerns about corruption at Kusile.
DA MP Kevin Mileham said Ramokgopa’s comments were reckless and exposed his real agenda to sanitise ANC corruption and absolve the criminal networks operating in Eskom of responsibility.
“Ramokgopa should immediately retract his comments and explain how he plans to work with law enforcement agencies to root out corruption at Eskom, which is at the heart of much of the operational challenges that the entity is currently facing,” Mileham said.
He said Ramokgopa should encourage his ANC comrades in Parliament to vote in favour of a DA resolution to establish an ad hoc committee to investigate allegations of systemic sabotage, corruption and looting at Eskom.
“South Africa needs to know who is breaking and looting Eskom and, importantly, how, even though everyone knows the ANC is at the heart of it,” Mileham said.
Parliament has rejected the draft proposal for an ad hoc committee to be established.
Cape Times