A victory against loadshedding for the Rainbow Nation! The North Gauteng High Court recently ordered the government to protect all hospitals and public schools from loadshedding.
Gauteng, South Africa (08 May, 2023)—South Africa’s battle against loadshedding saw a victory recently after the North Gauteng High Court ruled that various public spaces should be protected from loadshedding and power cuts.
On Friday, the case to protect public health spaces, schools and police stations—as led by various organisations and parties including The United Democratic Movement, Action SA, Inkatha Freedom Party—was heard.
A massive victory for South Africa!
The Pretoria High Court ruled that public hospitals, health facilities, police stations & schools must have uninterrupted power.
Through efforts from ActionSA, UDM, & others electricity supply will be mandated to all public health facilities.
— ActionSA (@Action4SA) May 5, 2023
The Court ruled in favour of the case, and gave Pravin Gordhan (the Minister of Public Enterprises) 60 days to implement the order, instructed to take all reasonable steps to make sure electricity to these spaces is not interrupted.
This means that these public spaces need to be exempt from loadshedding, as without power, constitutional rights have been impacted, like the right to basic education.
Many public schools in South Africa don’t have generators or alternative energy sources. In these cases, learning time is snipped.
Not to mention the hospitals and clinics that have to fork out a lot of extra money to keep the life-saving lights on, like the Mahikeng Provincial Hospital which sometimes runs out of money to keep their backup power going.
Still, with many arguing that it won’t be possible to separate these spaces from their grids (or whether the government will actually act), alternative energy sources are at the height of the conversation.
As one UDM cost engineer, Maso Nqawe said:
“It’s not about grid, the court & applicants know that very well but what this means is that the government & Eskom should provide an alternative power to the mentioned institutions. Determination of the alternative is their baby, all what is needed is power to the mentioned.”
Still, wins against loadshedding are often far and few between, so this ruling is something that could spur a lot of change, and at the very least apply constitutional pressure.
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