Johannesburg - African Transformation Movement (ATM) has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to account to Parliament over the international loans he has been seeking in recent months.
The party said it had written to National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to urgently arrange a special sitting for Ramaphosa to explain himself over recent loan commitments.
This comes after Ramaphosa addressed the international community at the recent COP27 International Partners Group (IPG) conference where he appealed for higher scale funding of the Just Energy Transition Plan which seeks to move the country from coal to green energy.
ATM leader Vuyo Zungula said the party is concerned over Ramaphosa’s various loan announcements which have come with no explanation.
“The ATM is concerned about various loan announcements that Mr Ramaphosa has been periodically making. Before COP27, Ramaphosa announced a R1.5 trillion requirement and plan to finance energy transition over the next five years.
“This plan was finally handed over to the International Partners Group of countries which includes the US, UK, France, Germany and the EU,” the party said.
Zungula who has recently initiated the section 89 independent inquiry into the alleged Phala Phala farm theft said what concerns him the most is the repeated requests for grant funding on top of yet more funding at last year's COP26.
"What concerns the ATM even more is the mammoth request to be financed by the IPG in in addition to the $8.5 billion pledge made at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021.
"Given that the 6th administration under Ramaphosa has catastrophically failed to grow the economy, coupled with the fact that although there’s a lot of public relations exercises about the consessional nature of these giant loans is the fact that only 2.7% is grant funding. Put differently, South Africa has been dug into a deep hole,“ Zungula said.
The leader of the ATM said the secret conditions under which these loans have been made does no bode well for the country’s sovereign standing.
"The secret conditions under which these loans have been granted are making the ATM very anxious. In fact, we are worrying that the sovereignty of our country might have been mortgaged.
“Some African countries have had to give up their prized assets like airports because of their inability to service debts,” he said.
His party has requested for the speaker to arrange this special sitting, he said.
“The ATM is requesting the speaker to urgently call Mr Ramaphosa to Parliament to explain the finer details of these loans without compromising the already approved expenditure plans for the next five years.
“In addition, the ATM would like to know what exactly were the conditions under which these loans were given,” he said.
The Star