Masses of DA supporters, joined by various opposition parties, took to the streets of Cape Town yesterday as part of the “Power to the People” protest.
Also read: Watch: DA members gather in Cape Town for “Power to the People” march
The group marched on the ANC’s provincial offices to express their outrage over severe loadshedding and an imminent 18.65% electricity tariff hike.
The march coincided with mass action in Johannesburg, where protestors marched on Luthuli House.
Addressing the crowd, DA provincial leader Tertuis Simmers said: “We are here today to protest Eskom’s rolling blackouts – and yes, it’s blackouts, not loadshedding.
“We are here today to protest for the reasons why we are left in the dark for four hours at a time. We are here today to protest against the dismally dysfunctional ANC government.
“Blackouts are one of the many ANC failures, but blackouts are a special failure of the ANC and a failed service of the ANC government which harms all of us equally.”
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde led the march in Cape Town’s CBD.
“We need to show that this country needs change,” he told the crowd. “When the lights go out, we are going to find the fault and fix the fault … It is up to us as the people of the country to fix this fault, at the very least to fix it in a year’s time at the voting polls.”
DA councillor JP Smith added that the march was to the ANC office and not Eskom because Eskom was not the source of the problem.
“The source is systematic looting of Eskom over more than a decade, we saw it happening in front of our eyes.”
Upon arrival at the ANC’s offices in Adderley Street, protestors were met by agitated members of the ANC Youth League and a strong police presence.
No memorandum was given to the angry group of ANC supporters because the march went around them and took a different route back after their programme was over.
“We are here to support the youth league because the ANCYL in Gauteng and the Western Cape took the decision to defend the ANC offices,” explained ANC leader in the Western Cape, Cameron Dugmore.
“We think it’s a bad practice for one political party to march to the offices of another political party. This a potential for conflict and misguided from the DA.”
“This is the first time I have ever seen the DA marching with Winde, did they ever march against the hundreds of farmworkers that are being evicted, about the fact only 3% of agriculture land in this province is owned by coloured and African farmers, or even gender-based violence?”
Also read:
Eskom responds to Ramaphosa’s request to halt the tariff hike
Pictures: Monique de Beer Photography
