Legal action to exempt schools, police stations, hospitals from load-shedding

Several entities, including civil society organisations, trade unions, and political parties, have joined forces in a legal battle against the government to end load-shedding critical sectors such as schools, police stations, and health facilities.

According to a City Press report, the organisations have implemented legal proceedings to exempt these sectors from rotational power cuts.

Nineteen organisations, including the United Democratic Movement, National Union of Metalworkers, Action SA, and Build One SA, approached the Pretoria High Court on Friday, 10 March 2023.

They want to force the government to protect public facilities from Eskom’s rotational power cuts.

Other entities involved include the Soweto Crisis Committee, Democracy in Action and the SA Unemployed People’s Movement.

The organisations, represented by a team of nine lawyers, accuse Eskom, President Cyril Ramaphosa, and the public enterprises and energy departments of failing their constitutional and statutory obligations.

They added that Eskom load-shedding has “plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis”.

Load-shedding hamstrings critical sectors while cabinet members sit pretty

Several critical industries are suffering the effects of load-shedding, while cabinet members get generators and up to R5,000 worth of free electricity and water.

In January 2023, Gauteng Deputy Judge President Roland Sutherland announced a shift to virtual court hearings due to ongoing load-shedding at the Johannesburg High Court.

Sutherland explained that continued load-shedding was impacting High Court proceedings as it did not have a reliable generator to cover the periods of outages.

As a result, the Johannesburg High Court was forced to move hearings online to minimise the effects of load-shedding.

However, shortly after Sutherland’s announcement, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) said the court’s generators were in good working order and that a lack of fuel was to blame.

“Regarding the issue of the Johannesburg High Court, DPWI was only informed of the problem on Friday, 13 January 2023, that the fuel was low,” the department said.

“The DPWI is now advising clients to consider other sources of energy, such as solar power as a back up to generators. These interventions would lessen the risk of overheating of generators and excessive fuel costs.”

In November 2022, Emergency medical service (EMS) ER24 told MyBroadband that traffic resulting from Eskom rotational power cuts could increase emergency response times.

It added that unstable cellular networks often result in emergency calls failing to connect, further contributing to the challenge of attending to emergencies during load-shedding.

“Unfortunately, load-shedding traffic will have an impact on all emergency services,” ER24 said.

“Traffic congestion can have an effect on the response times of these services responding to their various emergencies.”

While services in critical sectors like these struggle due to rotational power cuts, cabinet ministers get a generous utility allowance for their official residences.

In October 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa walked back a ministerial handbook change that gave cabinet ministers an unlimited allowance for utilities, including water and electricity.

The changes took effect on 13 April 2022, despite the cabinet members receiving pay cheques of R200,000 a month.

Following outcry over the change, Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya announced the withdrawal of the controversial amendment.

“President Ramaphosa acknowledges and appreciates the public sentiments on the matter. However, the impression created that the amendments were conducted in secrecy and to avoid public scrutiny is false,” Magwenya stated.

“The withdrawal will give effect to the 2019 version of the Executive Guide, pending a review.”

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