Durban - The Treasurer-General (TG) of the ANC, Paul Mashatile, says the Cabinet ministers who were first warned about load shedding got away with not being penalised for ignoring the advice.
Mashatile said that was because, in South Africa, people don't plan ahead, and when they don't do so, there are no consequences even when their decision later impacts the country.
He made these remarks while addressing the ANC Youth League of the eThekwini region on Wednesday evening.
The youth gathered at Elangeni hotel on the Durban beachfront to discuss issues of youth empowerment while remembering the birthday of the late Oliver Reginald Tambo, the former president of the ANC.
Video: Sihle Mavuso/IOL Politics
Mashatile, during his off-the-cuff speech, touched on several issues affecting the youth. Amongst them, he said the youth was failing to push to lead structures of the ANC but demanding some form of dividends from those elected to power.
He said that was not to be. Instead, the youth should push to lead from the front. If not, hold those elected to empower them.
Then he used China as an example of how empowerment and poverty eradication can work wonders for a country and how leaders are held accountable for their actions.
He said one of the reasons why South Africa was in the dark, because of Eskom's load shedding, was because no leader was held to account for it.
According to him, prior to 1994 and the days thereafter, Eskom's capacity was enough until the company moved from providing electricity to a privileged white few to all citizens, even in rural areas.
"But you know what we didn't do? We didn't increase capacity. We didn't. A report came out during Thabo (Mbeki's) time and said capacity (should be increased). Why didn't we do it? Those who were responsible, who were ministers of that, do we think anything happened to them? They probably retained their positions, and today we are in the dark because we didn't do what was supposed to be done," Mashatile told the crowd.
Turning to internal matters of the ANC, Mashatile said the "step aside" resolution applies to every member of the party who has been charged with serious crimes – including the President.
His comments on the resolutions come as there were murmurs over why some senior members of the ruling party haven't stepped aside even though they are facing serious allegations.
"If you are facing serious crimes, step aside. We can’t negotiate (with you), even if you are the mayor of eThekwini. No, we will just call you to enquire when are you going to step aside. Surely, all of you has seen the document (ANC resolution on stepping aside), it is very clear. We can't be ambitious in rules to fight corruption when the matter is on our doorsteps," Mashatile said about the resolution, which has seen the likes of Ace Magashule, Zandile and Limpopo ANC's Danny Msiza temporarily backing their positions.
Political Bureau