SA’s biggest metros resembled ghost towns on Monday as the EFF, the country’s third-largest political party, embarked on protests to demand an end to load-shedding and for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign.
There was heightened security in the capital city Tshwane, where a large contingent of police officers and soldiers carrying assault rifles kept a close watch on proceedings around the Church Square precinct where the red berets expect to be addressed by their leaders.
Political pundits have said the turnout for the protests could determine the kind of electoral support the EFF might get in the provincial and national elections in 2024, where support for the ANC is largely expected to dip below the 50% mark.
Some opposition political parties have refused to join the shutdown saying it would do more harm to the already weak economy. The DA, SA’s official opposition party, failed in its court bid to interdict the protest from going ahead.
Most businesses in the usually bustling Tshwane CBD were closed on Monday in what business owners said was a move to counter violence and looting which occurred in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal when former president Jacob Zuma was jailed in July 2021. The looting and violence then claimed the lives of more than 300 people and cost the economy an estimated R50bn.
Meanwhile, a coalition of political parties including the UDM, ActionSA, Build One SA and trade unions such as the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, went to the North Gauteng High Court on Monday seeking relief against the rolling blackouts. They called for certain sectors of the economy, such as telecommunications and health, to be exempted from load-shedding
Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC told the full bench comprising judges Norman Davis, Colleen Collis and Jabulani Nyathi, that between 2020 and 2022, load-shedding cost the economy R1.2-trillion. “What does that mean? It’s equivalent to one quarter of the country’s GDP. It exceeds the police budget and [that of] science and innovation,” Ngcukaitobi said.
He said load-shedding had caused a humanitarian crisis in the country, adding: “Load-shedding is not an act of God. It was caused by Eskom and national government.”
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