The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal, along with its alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), have agreed on the need for an Alliance Energy Summit to help solve the ongoing power cuts affecting the province’s economic gains.

The partnership calls itself the ‘political alliance council’.

Addressing the media ahead of a meeting with its alliance partners in Durban on Tuesday, ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said an energy strategy that would ensure energy security would be developed by the organisations.

Mtolo said the Alliance Energy Summit, which would be coordinated by the Richards Bay Industrial Development Zone, would be championed by KwaZulu-Natal Economic Development, Tourism & Environmental Affairs MEC Siboniso Duma, on behalf of the ANC government.

Mtolo said through the Energy Summit, the alliance partners wanted the ANC government to establish a cohesive plan, involving all stakeholders, to ensure the availability of sustainable energy resources in the province, to meet its future economic and domestic growth requirements.

RISING FOOD COSTS

The ANC and its alliance partners blamed the intermittent energy crisis for the rising cost of living.

“The rapid increase of the repo rate by the Reserve Bank [and an] exorbitant increase [in] electricity tariffs, reflect the neo-liberal offensive that subjects the majority of our people to abject poverty as a result of credit impairments and unaffordability of basic necessities,” Mtolo said.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The political alliance council said it took seriously the task of holding all leaders deployed by the ANC accountable.

It said the party had a responsibility, more than opposition parties, to ensure that the ANC-led government delivers.

“The political alliance council believes that the conditions of freedom and democracy mean that the ANC as a ruling party, representing the majority of the people of our country, has the responsibility to preside over the resources of the public to improve their lives. This makes the poor people and the majority of all South Africans to be the main and the only focus for the ANC as the leading party in government,“ the political alliance council said and added that narrow and individual interests must be a thing of the past.

GOVERNMENT MATTERS

The political alliance council noted the collapse of service delivery in various municipalities owing to corruption, maladministration and the abuse of political offices.

It said municipalities under the ANC must be at the forefront of service delivery and ensure good governance. 

The council is also concerned by the political instability created by coalitions which have also stalled service delivery.

It said alliance partners in these regions must work as a collective to ensure that local government remained the centre of popular participation in the ANC's programme of action aimed at strengthening service delivery.