ActionSA says it is delighted that the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, full bench has refused Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, Eskom, and the government’s application for leave to appeal against the load shedding judgment.
This means that the “humanitarian relief” argued for on ActionSA’s behalf by advocate G Benson ought to be immediately implemented, ensuring that even after elections, all public schools, hospitals, and the SAPS should be exempt from load shedding, it said in a statement on Thursday evening.
“The fact that the Minister of Electricity, Eskom and government saw fit to appeal this ‘humanitarian relief’ for the most vulnerable, indicates that load shedding is indeed not a thing of the past,“ it said.
In a landmark judgment handed down by the full bench of the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, on December 1, 2023, the court ruled in favour of ActionSA’s request that hospitals, schools, and police stations be exempted from experiencing rolling blackouts.
Mpho Madisha, the ActionSA Team FixSA Member for Energy, said: “Nearly two months ago, ActionSA president Herman Mashaba, Gauteng premier candidate Funzi Ngobeni and myself attended Eskom’s hearing at the North Gauteng High Court for leave to appeal the judgment.
“It is well documented how communities across South Africa have been adversely affected by load shedding when police stations’ telephone lines don’t work, hospitals fail to take care of sick patients when the lights go off, or studies are interrupted at schools when they fail to have access to power.”
The ruling comes as South Africa has had 50 days and counting of no load shedding.
Ramokgopa, at his Energy Action Plan media briefing on Monday, said the Unplanned Capability Loss Factor (UCLF) was now less than 10 000 megawatts and on May 13 was only 9 884MW.
“This reduction in the UCLF is due to a year’s hard work on planned maintenance which has resulted in improving the reliability of Eskom’s power plants. This improvement is reflected in the Energy Availability Factor (EAF) breaching the 70% level and is currently at 70.78%, with Kusile at 93%,” he said.
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