Hon Deputy Speaker, the hon Mnganga mentioned some valid causes of the prices at Eskom, but
the true origin of the crisis is the ANC and the ANC policy. It is the ANC government in all spheres that allowed the debt owed to Eskom to skyrocket whilst for more than 15 years taking a little to no action. It is the ANC government who allowed that in the last decade, there were 12 chief executive officers, CEOs, six chairmen, 60 directors, 30 executives who were paid in the last 10 years a total of R514 million.
The hon Minister of Public Enterprises said in this House last week, that one of the reasons for the crisis is the lack of skills and specially engineers. But whilst we are rendered in darkness, a group of former Eskom engineers are currently building a state of the art power plant in the Philippines. Why are they not assisting us? I will tell you why, hon Deputy Speaker, because they are not welcome at Eskom. Why? It is because of their skin colour and of the ANC's archaic policy of affirmative action. [Interjections.] Because of that archaic racial classification, the poor and the vulnerable in South Africa are suffering the most and our economy is collapsing.
Hon Deputy Speaker, let me also tell the DA that the fact of the matter is that it is not people that are saying that affirmative action causes the problem, that are saying that black people are inferior. It is the policy of the affirmative action that is rendering black people inferior. The policy that you and the ANC are supporting is rendering black people as inferior. [Interjections.] That is the problem, hon Deputy Speaker. We are not appointing the best people for the jobs. We are only interested in redressing rather than restoring the economy, eradicating poverty and creating jobs. On 8 May the voters have the choice, to actually support the party who fights back against this archaic system, against racial classification and against a system that has created the poverty and the economic crisis that we are facing. [Interjections.]
It is time that people take a stance and that we actually want a better future and not a better past. We should appoint the best engineers to actually address the problem. It's a lack of skills that created the problem. It's the ANC that allowed the people to steal the money for salaries to skyrocket and for the debt from
municipalities and public departments to skyrocket. I thank you.