In the opinion pages today, the late Jessie Duarte made fighting the apartheid regime and serving the ANC her life but what can’t be ignored is her role in various corruption scandals. Adriaan Basson hopes the idea of the government creating a second Eskom is just a joke.
Jessie Duarte: a street fighter who aided and abetted state capture – TimesLIVE Premium (for subscribers)
As the tributes pour in for ANC deputy secretary general Jessie Duarte, who died on Sunday morning from cancer, Chris Barron turns his attention to what is not being said about the veteran Luthuli House employee.
Barron highlights how Duarte was embroiled in scandal after scandal during her time in government and the running of the ANC. Duarte was complicit in allowing state capture to occur as evidence from the Zondo Commission report outlines.
Barron writes that Duarte along with then secretary general Gwede Mantashe wielded their power over the ANC parliamentary caucus and instructed MPs not to vote against Jacob Zuma or hold ministers to account when they were hauled before parliament. Read more here.
Adriaan Basson | Mr President, on this Mandela Day, please tell us Eskom 2.0 was a joke – News24 (for subscribers)
As President Cyril Ramaphosa gets ready to announce his energy plan this week to deal with rolling blackouts and years of failure within Eskom, Adriaan Basson hopes that the idea of creating a second state-owned energy company was nothing but a sick joke.
Basson notes that while addressing the South African Communist Party conference last week Ramaphosa floated the idea of creating a second Eskom to compete with the first one.
But as Basson points out, how can the government be trusted to set up a new entity when the current power provider is saddled with R400 billion in debt and struggling to do the bare minimum? Read more here.
Here’s what else we’re reading today:
JUSTICE MALALA | We’ve run out of good reasons to keep ANC in power. The rest is blackmail – TimesLIVE Premium (for subscribers)
MANDELA DAY | SA’s work is in progress, with emphasis on work – TimesLIVE Premium (for subscribers)
Liberator or traitor? This is where Mandela lost the plot – The Citizen (for subscribers)
Madiba gave ANC a good head start, but the party squandered it – The Citizen (for subscribers)
HILARY JOFFE: Why an energy emergency and a ‘second Eskom’ should be short-circuited – Business Day (for subscribers)
STUART THEOBALD: Switching ideas on plans for Eskom 2.0 – Business Day (for subscribers)
The meaning of the life (and death) of Jessie Duarte to women like me – Daily Maverick
Mkhwebane’s impeachment proceedings in Parliament — when shamelessness is a true superpower – Daily Maverick
Ebrahim Harvey | Issues of non-racialism, tribalism in ANC weighed heavily on Jessie Duarte – News24 (for subscribers)
Ralph Mathekga | The biggest risk to any new state-owned energy company is the ANC – News24 (for subscribers)
Image Credit: Gallo Images/Darren Stewart
