The South African Communist Party (SACP) says government should invest in building new power plants in order to meet the country’s electricity demand.
This comes after the power utility has been struggling to keep lights on in the country.
Eskom says it could take up to a year to resolve the electricity crisis:
The SACP national spokesperson, Dr. Alex Mashilo urged government to stop focusing on profit-driven interests.
This emerged during the Che Guevara memorial lecture held in Mahikeng in the North West at the weekend.
The Che Guevara memorial lecture was attended mostly by members of the SACP, in their regular colourful red t-shirts.
Other prominent dignitaries, included, North West premier, Bushy Maape, as well as, Cuban, Palestinian and Venezuelan ambassadors, in South Africa and the president of Botswana National Front, Duma Boko.
The lecture shared ideas on the work done by Che Guevara in other parts of the world, including his own country, Cuba.
During the lecture, the SACP outlined issues affecting South Africa that include Eskom.
The spokesperson for the party Dr. Mashilo says, government should invest in building additional power plants to avoid rolling blackouts.
“We have 12 million cars in the country, South Africa think about the situation whereby by 2030 at least 6 million of these cars are electric vehicles. Where are we going to get power? So the state has to invest in new power generation capacity and it has to plan that well in advance. It has to build power stations to supply people, we cannot rely on profit-driven interests to meet the needs of the people as far as electricity is concerned.”
Current political leadership
The guest speaker, the president of Botswana National Front, Duma Boko shared his thoughts on his country’s current political leadership. Boko says, things have changed drastically in Botswana.
“The current president has captured and weakened all institutions including those that would otherwise provide oversight and accountability on the executive, on himself and his cabinet. He has destroyed corruption and economic crime, he has destroyed the judiciary which is the latest embarrassment and saga that is going on.”
Cuban ambassador to South Africa, Enrique Gonzalez says they are assisting some other parts of the world to remember Che Guevara.
Cuban Ambassador Enrique Gonzelez says: “All over the world we need to honour his legacy and try to help each other and in the case of the Cuban we practice that international day every day that is why we have Cuban engineers working not only here but in many countries across the world.”
Guevara is remembered as a political activist who dedicated his life to fighting colonialism in different countries.
