As South Africans grapple with rolling blackouts due to Eskom’s load shedding, a civil rights movement called ‘Not In My Name International’ took to the streets demanding that President Cyril Ramaphosa declare a National State of Disaster and call regular ‘family meetings’ as he did during the two years of Covid-19.
About 100 members of the movement marched to Nersa and to the Presidency to demand an end to load shedding and for Nersa to reverse the electricity tariff hike it allowed Eskom to impose on its cash-strapped customers.
The president of the movement, Siyabulela Jentile said electricity is a basic human right and accused Ramaphosa of facilitating legitimised looting of State resources in the guise of load shedding and the unbundling of Eskom.
“Electricity is not free when in fact it should be. It is a basic human right however for reasons unbeknown to us, the President appears to be facilitating legitimised looting of State resources in full view of the people who are paying for services that should be free.
“Our demands are this: declare a national State of Disaster with the same conviction we witnessed during your COVID-19 campaigns. We are saying that the energy crisis in South Africa must be declared a National State of Disaster.”
Not In MY Name was formed in 2017 to fight gender-based violence after the death of Karabo Mokoena, a young woman who was killed and her body charred by her boyfriend Sandile Mantsoe.
The marchers.also called on the President to “issue a moratorium on coal exports and salary increase until it is justifiably to lift it”.
“Thirdly, provide South Africa with weekly family meetings that are measurable in nature and open to public scrutiny. Lastly, cut the red tape associated with procurement of the most effective method of solving this energy crisis.
“Every engineer willing and capable to assist must be allowed to do so and where needed you must retrench useless engineers.There are useless engineers at Eskom, they are white useless engineers at Eskom. But in this country when you are white you can’t be incompetent, he said.
The organization also wants Nersa to reverse its decision to grant Eskom a 18,65% electricity tariff hike “until such time that an equilibrium has been established and there are reasonable grounds to increase the cost of electricity”.
Not in My Name have given Nersa and the Presidency 21-days to respond to their demands and threaten to showdown the N1 and N4. Nersa and the Presidency accepted the memorandum of demands.