Ramokgopa to seek clarity on ruling banning load-shedding at clinics and schools

Electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, while conceding that load-shedding has breached several constitutional rights, is seeking further clarity on a court order that has given him until January 31 to  “take all reasonable steps” to ensure public hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations are not affected by load-shedding.

One of the issues that requires further explanation is the court’s understanding of “reasonable action”.

“I don’t know what reasonable action is — there are [many] interpretations of this. We need clarity on this.”

This clarity was needed, he said, should the case reach a point where the minister of electricity is deemed to be in contempt of court.

Speaking on Tuesday, Ramokgopa said the court needed to be specific about the actions it expects the minister to take.

The decision by the court refers specifically to the supply of electricity to public hospitals, police stations, clinics and schools, but other essential services are not referred to explicitly, he said.

“From where I am sitting key infrastructure assets [that should be included] are our water assets. If these don’t function, we’ll have no clean drinking water. You will have prisons with no water supply...”

“We need to understand how the court arrived at this grouping of [facilities] and that is the clarification we will seek when we go to court to lodge an appeal.”

But, he said, they agreed with the court’s determination that load-shedding breached several constitutional rights.

This included, the court declared, the rights to human dignity, life, freedom and security of the person, to an environment that was not harmful to people’s health and wellbeing, the right of access to healthcare services, food, and water and the right to basic education.

“What we are not disputing is that load-shedding limits the constitutional rights of South Africans,” said Ramokgopa.

Load-shedding began in 2008, but 2023 was the worst year in terms of generation performance which resulted in SA experiencing more load-shedding than in the previous five years combined.

In a recent presentation to parliament’s portfolio committee for mineral resource and energy, the National Treasury and representatives from the presidency said load-shedding was estimated to have cost SA R224bn in 2020-22 and this would have been much higher in 2023.

Ramokgopa said despite a ramp-up in maintenance last year, the generation system remains unreliable. For this reason, Eskom and government could not make any promises yet about there being no more load-shedding in the future.

But, he said, in line with Eskom’s summer outlook for system performance they hoped to limit load-shedding to no higher than stage 4 for the remainder of the summer.

The country experienced three days with full power during the first nine days of 2024, but after suspending load-shedding on Saturday, Eskom announced on Tuesday it would resume the rotational power cuts until further notice.

With TimesLIVE

erasmusd@businesslive.co.za