Cape Town – ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula has acknowledged that the government’s inability to resolve the issue of load shedding in South Africa will affect the ruling party’s prospects in the elections.
Speaking in an interview with Stephen Sackur on the BBC’s HARDtalk, Mbalula said that the ANC had entrusted the government and South African ministers with the task of eliminating load shedding before the year’s end.
He expressed concern over the detrimental effects of load shedding on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), emphasising that the nation could not afford such losses.
Mbalula described load shedding as South Africa’s Achilles heel, saying that it would have repercussions for the ANC’s ability to secure an outright majority in elections.
“This load shedding has just made a mess of our country and projected us as something else. That is why we are focused on dealing with it,” he said.
While he conceded that load shedding would affect the party, he also noted that it would not result in the complete removal of the ANC from power.
“If it is not dealt with decisively, it will affect (the party) but it will not take the ANC totally out of power,” he told Sackur.
@news_livesa “If Loadshedding & the power crisis continues it will bring the ANC down won’t it” Asked Stephen Sackur “ if ever it is not dealt with decisive it will affect us but it will not take ANC totally out of power” ANC SG Fikile Mbalula #anc #ancsg #fikilembalula #mbalula #2024election #2024elections #fikilembalula #eskom #loadsheding #loadsheddinginsouthafrica #bbc #sg #eskomsa #mbalulabbc #bbchardtalk #newslivesa #newslive #mbalulaminister??? #cyrilramaphosa ♬ original sound – news_liveSA
Meanwhile, the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said on Tuesday that South Africa would have to endure a “significant order” of load shedding until the end of the year.
“We now know that we have to, as the population and the economy, settle for load shedding of a significant order until the end of the year, at least,” EWN quoted Gordhan as saying.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
