‘Serious concerns’ about order compelling the exemption of hospitals, schools and police stations
The government will file an urgent appeal against a recent court order compelling it to exempt hospitals, schools and police stations from load-shedding as this poses a risk to “current efforts to stabilise the national grid”.
“While the department respects the independence of the courts, in this case the department believes that the judgment would have unintended consequences and undermine the very efforts to balance the protection of the rights that were ventilated in this case, with the need to stabilise and protect our grid infrastructure.”
Holomisa said the government had already been given an opportunity to prove its claims and had failed to do so. He said the government has been “negligent” for too long. “The truth of the matter is that a government cannot fold arms and hide behind a technicality.”Lufuno Rudo Mathivha, head of the clinical department at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, told the court in her affidavit: “Repeated power surges cause damage to sensitive and vital equipment in hospitals ...
She concluded that there are probably numerous instances where the cause of patients’ deaths “may have been actually due to load-shedding”. The applicants argued that current “crime statistics” mean that urgent steps must be taken to provide power to police stations. The rights to freedom and security are infringed every time police stations are shut down, they said.
Gordhan had argued in the court that he had no control of day-to-day activities at Eskom and pointed to energy minister Gwede Mantashe. President Cyril Ramaphosa told the court that “none of the government respondents have a constitutional responsibility to supply electricity to the people of the republic”.
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