Eskom blackouts should no longer be acceptable: Steenhuisen

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen says the country’s electricity crisis and the state of infrastructure should no longer be acceptable to citizens.

The official opposition is hoping to make major inroads in the 2024 national elections.

Steenhuisen was speaking during a virtual briefing on what the party calls the True State of The Nation, ahead of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s SONA speech on Thursday.

The DA leader says the governing ANC has failed on many levels.

“And of course loadshedding is the most visible and the most threatening of the state failures that affect South Africans, but it’s not the only one. Our Post Office has collapsed, our freight rail network, our passenger rail service have collapsed; our ports have all, but collapsed,” says Steenhuisen.

He says crime is also getting out of hand.

“Our police is losing the war against violent crime and municipal service delivery in 1100 of towns and cities are simply non-existent. These failures have been a long time in coming, but with the move to permanent high stage loadshedding, government failure has now reached into every South African house,” he adds.

VIDEO | SONA 2023 | State of SA according to the Democratic Alliance: John Steenhuisen