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Did Mabuza mislead Parliament on the completion of the Medupi power station?

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Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance (DA) will ask Parliament’s Ethics Committee to issue a caution against Deputy President, David Mabuza, over misleading statements he made on the completion of Medupi Power station.

In June 2020, while addressing an oral question session in the National Assembly, Mabuza stated that “Eskom has committed to completing Medupi and Kusile power stations by the revised dates of 2020 …and 2023 respectively.”

In September 2020, Mabuza continued with his disinformation campaign while answering questions in the National Council of Provinces when he gave false assurance to the effect that, “South Africans must be confident that we are going to get out of this problem. Why am I saying so? There is a new build programme [and it will bring in] additional capacity … from Medupi and Kusile.”

Far from this being the case, for months down the line, South Africa has been plunged into a crippling loadshedding schedule from Eskom. These misleading statements from Mabuza are a clear indication that the government is simply fumbling in the dark with no clear plan on how it intends to address the power crisis.

At a time when South Africans need complete honesty from government on efforts to address the ongoing energy crisis, ANC functionaries have chosen to be economical with the truth in the vain hope that it will cover up the true extent of their failures in handling the crisis.

South Africa is currently in the grip of a deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing threat of loadshedding is placing patients in ICU units, access to power for oxygen, and the storage of anticipated vaccines at risk. Our call to the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, to give absolute certainty that medical facilities and vaccine storage facilities will be protected against loadshedding has been ignored.

It is incomprehensible that South Africans are being asked to bear the burden of ANC incompetence places on their lives and livelihoods. The least that Mabuza can do is to be honest about the full extent of the energy crisis instead of using the parliamentary platform to give false hope by peddling misleading information. The DA demands a full and transparent explanation of the reasons for the continued failures at Medupi and Kusile which are currently responsible for our continued fiscal burden and ongoing blackouts.

Regards

Ghaleb Cachalia MP
DA Shadow Minister Public Enterprises

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