'Eskom delay no election ploy'

Johannesburg - The ANC on Wednesday rejected media suggestions that Eskom's price increase was delayed until after the April elections this year.

The ANC had read with disbelief and surprise an article in last week's Mail and Guardian alleging that former Eskom chief executive officer Jacob Maroga delayed massive electricity tariff hikes until after the elections at the behest of the ANC, its spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.

"We want to state for the record that such a behest as alleged by Mail and Guardian never took place," he said.

"No-one in the ANC ever requested Maroga to delay the announcement of Eskom proposed tariffs increases until after the elections. There was no reason for the ANC to do so.

"Firstly, the ANC is a liberation movement which since its inception has championed the aspirations and collective desire of South Africans for a better South Africa and a better life for all.

"It cannot and should not be reduced to a mere electoral party apparatus whose mission is to win votes above anything else."

Mthembu said that as a ruling party, the ANC was acutely aware of the separation between the party and the state, and did not instruct or directly engage with government organs.

The article, he said, presupposed that the ANC agreed with the Eskom proposed tariff increases, but was only worried about the timing of the announcement of the proposed increases.

"This is far from the truth. Our approach on energy provisioning has always been that it should not have negative effects of slowing our economic recovery and should also not impact negatively on job creation and economic growth.

"It therefore would not make any sense that the ANC would disagree with Eskom proposed tariff increases, but still find it expedient to ask Eskom not to pronounce on such increases before the April 2009 elections," Mthembu said.

The Mail and Guardian reporter had not asked the ANC whether it had asked Maroga to delay announcements on the proposal of tariff increases, he said.

The only inquiry put before the ANC "was allegations made by some faceless people within Eskom regarding Maroga's attitude on this matter".

The ANC found it very odd that it had to comment firstly, on allegations made by "some faceless people, and also on the matter about somebody else that did not concern the ANC".

"It is only for these reasons that the ANC did not respond to the fishing expedition by the Mail and Guardian reporter," he said.

- Sapa