LETTER: ANC cannot use the just transition to hide incompetence

Alexander Parker makes the point in his column that at COP27 SA is asking for assistance to do for energy what in large part a functional government should have done years ago (“The demoralising scale of SA’s nasty coal habit,” November 6).

The ANC should not be allowed to use the just transition to clothe its  failings or hide its purposeless incompetence. In 1994 there was another transition, which has proved anything but just.

Eskom’s turbines were built in service of an apartheid state, but were ready and available to be put to use by the ANC to the greater good. Like white skills themselves, they were there at the ANC’s hand to be repurposed for something better.

Instead, at a time when leadership within democracy was possible, the ANC chose another road, the road to short-term loot over long term prosperity, the road where the milk cow is slaughtered for this weekend’s braai and the children’s milk left unprovided. It is a road that is difficult to leave; one that ends at the cliff-edge.   

We must set ourselves on the path of the separation of the executive from the legislative arms of government. We need an elected parliament that makes policy but leaves execution to a more professional civil service. If President Cyril Ramaphosa wishes to leave a lasting legacy, I pray he goes in that direction.

Barry Hay, Parktown North

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