*YCLSA REJECTS WORLD BANK LOAN FOR ESKOM * *17 March 2010*
The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) is flabbergasted by the continued efforts of the Ministry of Public Enterprises on behalf of the South African government to secure a $3, 75 billion loan from the World Bank. We are strongly opposed to this World Bank loan because it will feed into capital’s agenda of privatising energy generation. The loan is the first stage of putting Eskom into the hands of monopoly capital and private control. Even though Minister Barbara Hogan argues that there are no conditions, the World Bank’s own ‘Fact Sheet’ about the loan claims that by 2013, there will be 1,667 megaWatts of renewable energy available ‘led by the private sector’. YCLSA believes strongly in replacing coal with renewable energy but insists that this is a job for the state because making profits and caring for the environment are often incompatible. Already, Eskom has been so oriented to commercialization that it has failed miserably in its stated intention of producing one million solar hot water geysers; only a few thousand have been produced. Numsa has re-iterated that a “Just Transition” will involve metalworkers moving into Green Jobs including production, installation and maintenance of passive solar geysers, wind and wave turbines, and many other clean forms of energy. The World Bank and Eskom are the wrong agencies to rely on for loans and investments, history has proven. Moreover, the costs of repaying the World Bank loan will stagnate the economy and lower the living standards of South Africans, because of exorbitant tariffs and the shedding of quality manufacturing jobs. The cost of paying the loan will rise as the Rand falls in value, and in any case, the Bank’s 2008 Country Assistance Strategy already says clearly, “South Africa is a unique client for the Bank within the Africa region. It is a large middle-income country with sizable own revenues and no need for significant external financing.” The Bank then admits that it should not be involved in energy financing, because “Going forward, therefore, Bank assistance to South Africa must focus on those areas in which the Bank has comparative advantages acknowledged and valued by Government” and amongst those listed, energy is not one. We call on both the Ministries of Public Enterprises and Energy to convene public hearings across the country to solicit a popular public view on the loan. This call is consistent with the Freedom Charter’s injunction that the ‘people shall govern’, as opposed to “government must govern”. Failure to heed this call by our public representatives will reinforce our beliefs that our leaders are betraying the people’s mandate and aspirations. Alternatively, we call on the Ministry to subject this process to a parliamentary process and debate to ensure that our representatives engage with this issue. The mandate that this government should remember comes from the 1994 Reconstruction and Development Programme: “Relationships with international financial institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund must be conducted in such a way as to protect the integrity of domestic policy formulation and promote the interests of the South African population and the economy. Above all, we must pursue policies that enhance national self-sufficiency and enable us to reduce dependence on international financial institutions.” For these reasons, we reiterate our rejection of the loan from the imperialist World Bank, which thrives on imposing neo-liberal and capitalist policies to suffocate the lives of the working class and the poor of the world. As the YCLSA, we call on the Cabinet to rethink this matter. We are not convinced that all funding possibilities were considered before the decision to approach the World Bank was made. * * *For more information* *Contact * *Gugu Ndima* *National Spokesperson – 076 783 1516* -- Gugu Ndima +27 76 783 1516 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
