Johannesburg - Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has announced that he will be challenging the recent Pretoria High Court ruling that exempted public institutions, including schools, clinics, hospitals, and police stations, from load shedding.
In a statement on Monday, Gordhan said his department would be lodging an urgent appeal to set aside the judgment that was handed down by the North Gauteng High Court on Friday.
This comes after opposition political parties such as UDM, IFP, BuildOne South Africa (Bosa), ActionSA, Numsa, and many others took the matter to court in a court case that began on March 20, 2023, following months of rolling blackouts in the country.
On Friday, the Pretoria High Court gave Gordhan 60 days to adhere to a court ruling to ensure public healthcare facilities, schools, and police stations are exempted or protected from load shedding.
Gordhan said his department had serious concerns about the implications of the court ruling on the current efforts to stabilise the national grid and get the country out of load shedding.
"The department has studied the ruling and has determined through legal advice that the prudent step to take is to lodge an appeal to set aside the ruling and allow for the ongoing efforts to end load shedding to proceed without putting undue risk on the country’s grid infrastructure," Gordhan said.
The court application was brought by 19 unions and political parties, including ActionSA, the UDM, the IFP, and the National Union of Metalworkers in South Africa (Numsa), seeking to declare load shedding unconstitutional and reduce its detrimental impact on certain critical sectors by exempting these from load shedding.
The judgment ruled that where it was not possible to isolate and exempt facilities embedded in their surrounding networks, Gordhan must ensure these facilities get generators and other alternate energy supplies to ensure uninterrupted electricity.
On social media, Gordhan has received criticism over his decision to appeal the court ruling, with many saying he was behaving like the country’s president when he was just a minister.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim has since slammed Gordhan for his desire to appeal the recent ruling, saying the ANC should be the one leading the matter instead of a delegate of the party.
"Pravin Gordhan is deployed by the ANC. He finds it necessary to file leave to appeal the court's decision that public health institutions, schools, and police stations ought to be supplied with uninterrupted power or an on-site backup supply. The ANC has stopped caring for the people," Jim said.
The Star