“We are still waiting to see action against prominent state-capture ringleaders, including some who still hold senior positions in Government. We need to see their urgent removal,” adds Duvenage.
OUTA welcomes the prioritisation of Eskom’s recovery, but calls on the finance-lending houses to play their part in restructuring the loans and finding solutions to Eskom’s predicament. After all, they were part of the problem in taking up unnecessary bonds purely because they were backed by Government guarantees. In addition, while splitting Eskom into three separate units (generation, transmission and distribution) is a good start, retaining these under a single Eskom Holdings company seems a little like rearranging the deckchairs on a sinking ship. We welcome the call for Eskom to cut costs significantly and develop a new business model, as OUTA has for years called for these.
We believe it is necessary to get behind the President’s plans of nation-building, but it is equally important for civil society to remain vigilant and challenge Government to right-size its Cabinet, remove economically restrictive policies and to become more efficient in the use of taxpayers’ money and rule in the best interests of the public.