<\/p>\n
Pretoria – Economic Modelling Academy director, Pali Lehohla has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to demand an apology and answers from the International Partner Group nations that \u201cmisled\u201d South Africa into abandoning coal in order to bring an end to greenhouse emissions.<\/p>\n
This follows the public outrage that ensued when the National Energy Regulator of South Africa gave the nod for Eskom to increase electricity tariffs by 18.65%, while the nation continues to experience the dark due to indefinite blackouts.<\/p>\n
Ramaphosa has earned the ire of academics and activists who fail to understand how he could possibly justify signing the so-called Just Energy Transition deals with developed countries that continued to rely on coal.<\/p>\n
During the COP27 summit, held at Sharm El-Sheikh International Convention Centre in Egypt last November, Ramaphosa committed South Africans to a multimillion-dollar debt scheme that would see the country abandon coal in pursuit of renewable energy.<\/p>\n
South Africa\u2019s \u201cgreen partners\u201d include France, the US, the UK, Germany and the EU.<\/p>\n
According to former statistician-general Lehohla, it appears Ramaphosa was misled.<\/p>\n
\u201cGermany has shown the world what has to be done. The president should ask his counterparts why they misled him\u2026 \u2018You said that I should dump coal, but when you started using it again you should have told me\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the president doesn\u2019t ask those questions, load shedding will remain a problem. He should get those answers and come back to the nation and say \u2018I have been badly misled. I thought I have been dealing with honourable people, a just process for just transition negotiation\u2019,\u201d said Lehohla.<\/p>\n
Lehohla labelled Ramaphosa\u2019s recent apology for load shedding \u201cpyrrhic\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis apology will remain pyrrhic until he demonstrates to the nation that he was misled. If you don\u2019t demand answers, the bush will burn you.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo begin with, why didn\u2019t he ask questions or solicit advice before entering into the deals? He must show what his position is. They still invite him to sign deals.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe must be able to say, \u2018You are betraying me. I have taken my country up this route, (but) you have shown me how much of a scam this is. You just left me\u2019. If he doesn\u2019t publicly say so, questions will arise,\u201d Lehohla said.<\/p>\n
He said Ramaphosa\u2019s apology would have made sense if he was new to Eskom\u2019s woes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president was there at the war room when he was deputy president. The war room looked at long-term solutions to load shedding. It was even declared that load shedding was history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Lehohla also touched on the continued Eskom deficit, proposing the unpopular strategy to use pensions to revive the entity without incurring future foreign debt.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot run away from the fact that the pension funds can assist the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cDeal with the thieves because in the end we make loans and they steal those loans and our country is in permanent debt that future generations will not be able to deal with,\u201d Lehohla said.<\/p>\n
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya did not respond to media questions on the matter.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, DA leader John Steenhuisen has expressed frustration after he failed to attend a virtual meeting with Ramaphosa due to load shedding.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike ministers, we don\u2019t have generators and free electricity. I\u2019m still waiting to see if he is going to agree to a one-on-one meeting that I asked for in a letter I sent last week,\u201d said Steenhuisen.<\/p>\n
Pretoria News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pretoria – Economic Modelling Academy director, Pali Lehohla has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to demand an apology and answers from the International Partner Group nations that \u201cmisled\u201d South Africa into abandoning coal in order to bring an end to greenhouse emissions. This follows the public outrage that ensued when the National Energy Regulator of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[13663,13479,419,13664,11263,13662,13239,8821,426,1011],"class_list":["post-164628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","tag-abandoning","tag-coal","tag-cyril","tag-emissions","tag-greenhouse","tag-hoodwinked","tag-lehohla","tag-pali","tag-ramaphosa","tag-west"],"yoast_head":"\n