DA’s march on ANC’s Luthuli House was the starting gun for its 2024 election campaign

Come next year’s general election, the ANC is likely to say it has improved the lives of millions of people and deserves another chance at power.

Still, that one-third of the country which has political power and exercises it may now be frustrated with the electricity crisis beyond the point of no return. That rolling blackouts are still going to be with us when voters cast their ballots is a fact that ANC leaders appear to have finally realised.

On Wednesday, members of the DA marched towards the ANC’s headquarters, Luthuli House, saying it was there the real decisions that ruined Eskom were made. DA leader John Steenhuisen said it was the ANC that had broken the entity and was responsible for the problems that we now face as a nation. He said this would be part of a campaign of “rolling mass action”, perhaps a nod to tactics used by the anti-apartheid movement.

There is strong evidence to bolster the DA’s claim. As is well-documented, it was the ANC which was in power at all times during this crisis, and it was ANC members and leaders who made the decisions that broke Eskom.

Read more in Daily Maverick: "Twelve years of load shedding – written, starring & directed by the ANC"

And it was the ANC which benefited directly from deals such as Hitachi contracts through Chancellor House that led to catastrophic boiler problems at the Medupi and Kusile power stations.

It is the ANC government that appears unable, even unwilling, to address the sabotage in Mpumalanga, criminal acts committed within Eskom and the historic levels of corruption.

The ANC is well aware of this, so instead of simply refuting the DA’s claim, the party’s spokesperson, Pule Mabe, has said that it was the ANC itself that pushed for the Zondo Commission, thus shining a light on the State Capture which occurred at Eskom. (It is also the ANC chairperson, Gwede Mantashe, who is taking the Zondo report on judicial review. — Ed)

Mabe focused on the DA’s decision to march on Luthuli House, rather than trying to defend the ANC’s track record on electricity. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise on Sunday evening to ask Eskom to “put in suspense” its power price hike shows how important this issue is to the ANC.

Read more in Daily Maverick: "Ramaphosa’s load shedding populism – a cheap, short-term political move that will hurt South Africa"

For the DA, the real power of this issue may not be just to shine a light on its claim that the ANC is incompetent. It can use this to illuminate many different issues, including cadre deployment, corruption and the problems the ANC has had with basic stuff like forming a coherent energy policy.

At the same time, there seems to be competition among our politicians to be seen as foremost in trying to stop the Nersa-approved 18% increase.

Ramaphosa says he is asking Eskom’s board to suspend the increase, the DA has lodged a court application, and the UDM and Mmusi Maimane were joined by other groups in lodging a separate legal challenge.

The real value is getting votes