The Democratic Alliance (DA) will, on Wednesday, 25 January 2023, lead a ‘Power To The People’ march to Luthuli House in an effort to highlight the frustration of rampant loadshedding as well as the ANC’s decades-long governance failures.
DA march to Luthuli House: Road closures to be aware of
South Africa’s official opposition party expects thousands of protesters to gather at Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown, Johannesburg, at 09:30.
The march, spearheaded by the DA’s leadership, will move toward Luthuli House about a kilometre away.
While the route of the march remains unclear, these roads will likely be affected:
- Lillian Ngoyi Street;
- Harrison Street; and
- Library Gardens
The DA’s march is expected to be a peaceful demonstration. However, according to reports, a Gauteng branch of the ANC Youth League has also mobilised with every intent to ‘defend’ Luthuli House.
Motorists and pedestrians are advised to avoid the roads mentioned above until crowds die down later on Wednesday.
What is the DA marching for?
Wednesday’s picket, the DA explained, is a direct response to Eskom’s concerted effort to increase electricity tariffs by 18.65% “despite citizens spending over 120 days in darkness in 2022, with indefinite stage 6 load shedding already in 2023.”
However, President Cyril Ramaphosa had already reciprocated the cries of South Africans and asked Eskom to halt the price increase, on Monday, 23 January 2023.
“I have personally said to Eskom: ‘Eskom, it will be an injury to our people if we implement this 18% now when we are going through load shedding. Put it in suspense for a while’. And so the Eskom board is going to discuss that,” he said.
For the DA, though, price hikes are only a fraction of the problem with South Africa’s energy crisis. Already, the opposition party is in court fighting against the ruling party’s cadre deployment policy.
The DA in the Western Cape is also lobbying for the right to incentivise alternative energy procurement to service City of Cape Town clients with reduced stages of loadshedding.
Here are the latest updates from the DA’s march to Luthuli House:
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