By: ANG Reporter
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) has called for the immediate removal of Eskom chief executive, Andre de Ruyter and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan following the power utility’s implementation of Stage 6 loadshedding that has plunged the country into chaos.
In a statement SASCO said: “Eskom’s implementation of loadshedding has grown increasingly questionable, the leaps between various stages of loadshedding has proved to be at the centre of plenty of South Africans not accessing their basic rights and as such is a cause for concern.”
“The denial of electricity as a basic human right must lead to the president taking necessary actions of removal of the CEO of Eskom.”
SASCO argued that Eskom remained a key performance indicator of the country’s progress.
“The consistent blackouts are an indication of failure of a state to manage the power utility under the watch of the current minister and the CEO. The consistent blackouts have proved to have a direct impact on peoples lives and livelihood, the disastrous blackouts also impact basic business operations and that must be a cause of concern to a state with a limping economy.”
“The failures of the CEO can be traced to the 73 years old Pravin who should be retired in favour for a younger competent minister to overlook SOEs and ensure that they operate effectively to service our people.”
SASCO said Gordhan’s focus “is worrisome at his old age, the sale of SAA and failures of other SOEs should be pinned on the minister, as SASCO we urge the president to be considerate to the minister and allow him to focus on his retirement and spending his pension fund”.
“A strong stance needs to be taken by the president against incompetence and lacklustre ministers and CEOs of SOEs, this would go a long way to proving his commitment to the people of South Africa post his “side hustle” utterances at his auction.”
“The president needs to affirm to the people of South Africa that the ANC led government is committed to servicing South Africans at all times.”
