Staff Reporter
THE Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has threatened to disrupt President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday if Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan is not removed from his executive.
Addressing a media briefing on Sunday following the EFF’s plenum in Centurion, Tshwane, party leader Julius Malema said Ramaphosa has failed to heed their demands in recent months to fire Gordhan from his Cabinet.
“The problems of Eskom have worsened under the incompetent and seemingly untouchable Pravin Gordhan. South Africa, the largest economy in the continent, has power cuts everyday disrupting all social and economic life,” said Malema.
“Yet, there are no consequences on Gordhan who is the minister responsible for this crisis. There are as many power cuts in a day as there are blinks of an eye. This is now long overdue, accountability means there must be political consequences to incompetence. Gordhan must go before he runs down all the assets of the state and the people of South Africa.”
Much is expected of Ramaphosa at this year’s SONA.
This includes Cosatu’s call for Ramaphosa’s administration to consider using workers’ pension funds to bail out the cash-strapped power utility, Eskom.
Cosatu wants a special purpose vehicle to put together to include the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), Public Investment Corporation (PIC), Development Financing Institution and Development Bank of Southern Africa to take over 50% of Eskom’s over R450 billion debt.
Eskom continues to experience load-shedding, affecting small businesses and undermining SA’s developmental goals to industrialize South Africa and the SADC region.
Currently, SAA is torn between cancelling and maintaining uprofitable international routes.
This dilemma would not arise if the airline was run on a sound business philosophy.
“When Cyril starts, we start. That’s how it’s going to roll. When he starts speaking, we are speaking also about Pravin going. We are not going to be ruled here by Pravin, it must come to an end,” Malema said.