With President Cyril Ramaphosa missing in action while loadshedding wreaks havoc across the economy, Parliament must step in as a matter of urgency to show leadership and fill the leadership vacuum.

The DA will be writing to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula, to reiterate the call that was made by DA Leader, John Steenhuisen on 6 July that Parliament must be reconvened to deal with the energy crisis.

It is now almost two weeks since Ramaphosa made an undertaking that he will, "... in the coming days, announce a comprehensive set of actions to achieve much faster progress in tackling load shedding".

The long silence has led many to speculate that, either the President has no plan at all or he is once again pandering to vested interests in the ANC while he considers the various options that will accommodate these.

On 9 July 2022, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, wrote to Deputy President, David Mabuza, in his capacity as the Leader of Government Business, "requesting that Parliament be kept abreast of Executive interventions to deal with the energy crisis".

The Executive, under President Cyril Ramaphosa, has not only failed to honor this request but has, in the meantime, been promoting outrageous ideas about another state owned entity to compete with Eskom.

Parliament cannot afford to stand by and be a spectator when it is abundantly clear that the President and his Cabinet have run out of ideas on how to address this urgent national crisis.

South Africa needs decisive action that would fix without delay what is currently available and fixable and bring new generation capacity online in the shortest possible time and address the 14 year loadshedding nightmare that was made possible through failed ANC policies.