Minister of Electricity thrives on misinformation and phrase-mongering - Shivambu
Minister of Electricity Dr Kgosientsho ‘Sputla’ Ramokgopa continues to be under scrutiny, as South Africans express their frustration with the deepening power crisis.
Among the many political organizations that have spoken out about the load shedding-induced damage, is the EFF which has accused Ramokgopa of spreading misinformation and phrase-mongering.
“The Minister of Electricity @Kgosientsho_R thrives on misinformation and phrase-mongering. Yesterday he said he'll get 1500 Megawatts from Hydropower projects in Lesotho. FACT is the whole of Lesotho does not produce even 300 Megawatts currently. Even if you were to invest in hydroelectricity for the future, the entire process to build a 1500 megawatts hydroelectric plant will take more than 10 years and more than R100 billion.
“The gullible and semi-literate members still applaud him for misinformation and lies. Load shedding will not be ended by lies and misinformation,” the EFF’s Floyd Shivambu said.
Ramokgopa was recently under fire on social media after he revealed that stage 6 power cuts would continue almost indefinitely, as the system continued to be under substantial strain.
At a media briefing where he detailed the implementation of the country's energy plan, he said: "These unplanned outages resulted in Eskom being forced to implement Stage 6, and as Eskom's communication has been saying, it is Stage 6 almost indefinitely," said Ramokgopa
The DA too has been vocal of the minister, bringing up crucial aspects that need intervention.
The party called for “the government will stop misleading the country with respect to the seriousness of the crisis. On Tuesday, Deputy Minister of Public Enterprises, Obed Bapela stated that we are not yet fully on Stage 8 – a bizarre admission given that according to Eskom we are currently only on Stage 6. So where are we on the spectrum? And why can the government not be honest about this?” said the DA.