THE POLITICAL STARVATION OF SOUTH AFRICA - APARTHEID TO BLAME FOR ELECTRICITY PROBLEMS

THE POLITICAL STARVATION OF SOUTH AFRICA

APARTHEID TO BLAME FOR ELECTRICITY PROBLEMS

Stes de Necker

PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA - JACOB ZUMA:

South Africa’s energy problems were a product of apartheid and government was not to blame for the current blackouts, President Jacob Zuma said on Friday.

“The problem [is] the energy was structured racially to serve a particular race, not the majority,” Zuma told delegates at the Young Communist League’s congress in Cape Town on 12 December 2014

He said the ANC had inherited the power utility from the previous regime which had only provided electricity to the white minority.

IF THIS STATEMENT BY ZUMA WASN’T SO PATHETIC, IT COULD ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN COMICAL !

20 years after the ANC Government came into power, ‘apartheid’ still gets blamed for South Africa’s electricity shortages.

What he failed to mention is the fact that the structural collapse, due to poor construction and design of two power stations erected after 1994, are currently the main causes of the power shortages experienced in South Africa.

Adding onto that the lack of proper care and maintenance of the infrastructure that existed before 1994, it is no wonder that South Africa is on the brink of a total electricity meltdown.

But ‘No’ let’s blame apartheid!

Exacerbating the problem after 1994, are the hundreds of informal settlements that were established over the length and width of South Africa.

Millions of people were ‘voluntarily forced’ to move to squatter camps created by the ANC Government all over South Africa, to serve their political agenda to secure majority representation everywhere in the country.

People were literally transported free of charge and dumped in squatter settlements where they were given a patch of land to build their ‘makuku’s’ - a squatter type construction build with any type of material available, ranging from plastic sheeting, cardboard and timber, to corrugated sink and bricks and mortar.

Already in the year 2000, six years after the ANC Government came into power, hundreds of these settlements appeared all over South Africa. Every town and village now had an informal settlement on its doorstep,( in some cases four times the size of the existing town), as the  squatters were ‘recruited’ from all over South Africa to settle in these informal settlements.

The major problem however was that very few of these settlements were provided with the necessary services required for such locations. Little or no provision was made for proper sewage systems, waste removal, water supply and/or electricity supply. 

   

These settlements grew in size to such an extent that thousands of squatters found themselves congregating in a location where there was no hope of development or employment and soon the dissatisfaction with the existing conditions gave rise to numerous violent uprisings and demonstrations in these areas.

The ANC Government was consequently forced to make provision for the supply of these basic utilities as a matter of urgency. All efforts were directed towards the supply of electricity, water and sewage to these areas which naturally placed an enormous burden on the country’s existing energy resources.

So, Mr. President, the current problems are not as a result of ‘apartheid’, but rather as a result of the ANC Government’s ill conceived socio-economic policies and uninformed development decisions!

Could someone please provide this imbecile of a President with the correct facts!