Build One South Africa (Bosa) said it welcomes the judgment by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, instructing the Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to halt load shedding at the country’s schools, hospitals and police stations by January 31.
The judgment ordered that all public institutions such as hospitals and clinics, public schools and police stations, including satellite stations, are exempted from load shedding.
Bosa said the court threw out Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan’s frivolous and time-wasting appeal, upholding the push “to insulate and protect critical infrastructure from the harsh and unpredictable effects of rolling blackouts”.
Ramokgopa must ensure that there shall be no interruption of supply as a result of load shedding to these establishments.
“This is a monumental victory for South Africans who suffer daily due to persistent electricity cuts. Bosa will be monitoring the developments of this duty placed on government and will leave no stone unturned in making sure the judgment is honoured,” said Bosa spokesperson Roger Solomons.
“The persistent, rolling blackouts that have plagued the nation's electricity supply since the second half of 2007 have impacted all South Africans, particularly small businesses, health-care facilities and educational institutions. The energy crisis has affected South Africa’s economic growth and has resulted in job losses, business closures, and increasing inflation,” he added.
Solomons said while rolling blackouts cost the economy billions of rand and while South Africans sit in the dark and the economy is in freefall, Bosa was delighted that the judiciary acted in the best interests of the people and held this government to account.
Judge Norman Davis delivered a 66-page judgment on Friday afternoon in which he found that government had dismally failed the country and its people.
Davis declared that government’s failure to protect Eskom from criminal activity and state capture, which were manifested in the energy crisis and in load shedding, constituted breaches to protect and promote the Bill of Rights.
He attributed the energy crisis to government’s failure in the 1990s to open the energy sector to competition with the private sector and to timeously implement the Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme, as well as the delays in the decision to build Medupi and Kusile power stations.
In the opening to his judgment, Judge Davis said if courts could end load shedding they would. “But they can’t and it is not their function,” he said.
The judgment followed an application by political, labour and community organisations to stop Eskom from continuing with load shedding.
The court application was launched by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA; the United Democratic Movement (UDM, the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union; Bosa, the IFP; Saftu and Democracy in Action earlier this year.
On Saturday, President Cyril Ramaphosa speaking on the sidelines of the UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai vowed that paramount steps would be taken, following the judgment.
Ramaphosa also said the judgment spoke to what they want to see done.
“There is work under way to employ qualified professional people at Eskom,” Ramaphosa said.
Vuyo Zingula, leader of ATM also said the party welcome the court’s judgment.
”We consistently emphasised that the incompetence in critical areas, such as persistent load shedding, is a violation of human rights. Another example of human rights violations the government is actively engaged in, is corruption which not only just impacts our people directly and negatively but kills them day in day out,” Zungula said.
Dr Trevor Ngwane, founder of the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, in an interview with one of the broadcasters, also concurred with political parties and trade unions who hailed the judgment a victory for the public.
“This is a victory for the long suffering masses in South Africa. It is victory for political parties and unions and other community groups which took the government to court... the ANC government has been found guilty of failing to do its job of providing a reliable, uninterrupted supply of electricity. It is a step forward for South Africa, the working class and the poor,” Ngwane said.
A number of people took to social media platform X to express how they felt about this groundbreaking judgment.
Amahle Mbatha wrote: “Eskom is useful political tool that's used to distract the citizens from very serious issues that are happening currently in South Africa. Our human rights have been violated/abused intentionally & it's run down to be sold to the profit-driven society.”
Meanwhile, power utility Eskom yesterday said in order to manage emergency reserves, stage 4 load shedding will remain in force until 5am today (Monday). Thereafter, it said stage 3 load shedding will be implemented from 5am until 4pm, followed by stage 4 load shedding until 5am on tomorrow (Tuesday).
“This pattern of stage 3 load shedding in the morning and stage 4 load shedding in the evening will be repeated daily until Friday 4pm. Eskom will communicate should any significant changes occur. Unplanned outages are at 12 648MW and planned maintenance is at 6 814MW of generation capacity,” said Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena. | Additional reporting by Zelda Venter
The Star