State-owned power provider Eskom has condemned the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) unlawful protest at its Megawatt Park head office, in Sunninghill, which took place on Wednesday.

The parastatal said in a statement that the protestors arrived at Eskom without prior approval and proceeded to occupy the reception area, demanding to see Eskom Group CEO Brian Molefe so they could hand over a petition calling for the return of bonuses paid to employees since 2008.

Further, the DA petition claimed that “the Eskom monopoly dumped South Africa in a crisis through incompetence and mismanagement” and demanded that all future bonuses be placed on hold until the country emerged from the current electricity crisis.

While Eskom highlighted these demands as “frivolous and preposterous”, Molefe accepted the petition from the DA’s Natasha Mazzone and Kevin Mileham. However, he noted that, as members of Parliament, the DA representatives were well aware of the laws relating to demonstrations, protests and the handing over of memorandums.

In response to the DA’s petition, Eskom argued that it had not implemented load-shedding in the past 165 days, except for two hours and 20 minutes on September 14, 2015.  

“Our employees remain committed and dedicated to deliver on Eskom’s mandate of powering South Africa. This action by the DA was unnecessary. It was cheap politicking and electioneering of the worst kind, more so because the issues raised in the petition are the same issues that have been raised in Parliament, which have been addressed several times,” said Eskom.

The utility further noted that it would be conducting a forensic investigation to determine the authenticity of the signatories and the possibility that fraud might have been committed, as some signatures appeared to have been signed by the same person. The names of the petitioners were also signed in first-name alphabetical order.