Pretoria – City of Tshwane said the Bryntirion Estate, which accommodates official residences of the president, Cabinet ministers and other State VIPs. is benefiting from the regulations which stipulate that the Union Buildings, the seat of the South African government, is exempt from load shedding.
Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba told IOL several buildings which shared a substation with the Union Buildings were also benefiting from this arrangement.
“Union Buildings is excluded from load shedding, and that means areas around the proximity of the seat of government will benefit by default. There are residential areas and embassies around that area that are benefiting by default as they are supplied by the same sub station that feeds the Union Buildings,” said Bokaba.
“The Bryntirion Estate and surrounding areas to the Union Buildings benefit by default from load shedding,” he said.
This week, the national Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) said it was not responsible for load shedding schedules of any area or government building, as the debate on whether load shedding was affecting government official residences continued to swirl.
The DPWI reaction came after several questions were raised on why the vast Bryntirion compound, east of Pretoria’s CBD, and which incorporates Mahlamba Ndlopfu – the chief official residence of the president, the Sefako Makgatho presidential guest house, the vice president's official residence and many homes of Cabinet ministers – was exempt from the load shedding which had left many South Africans frustrated, and in the cold.
“The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure would like to set the record straight about the issue of load shedding in government buildings and state accommodation. For the past few days, the department has been inundated with enquiries regarding load shedding at Bryntirion Estate, which houses members of the executive,” said DPWI spokesperson Thamsanqa Mchunu.
“As DPWI we want to place it on record that as much as we are responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of Bryntirion Estate and other properties that house members of the executive, we are not responsible for determining load shedding, the places and times when it should occur,” she said.
Mchunu said issues of load shedding was the mandate of, and at the discretion of, the resident municipalities and Eskom.
“Which is why municipalities are able to switch off government buildings when they default, not us at DPWI, because that is not our area of responsibility,” said Mchunu.
The DPWI, however, highlighted that in Cape Town, only the president’s and deputy president’s houses remained lit during load shedding.
“As for ministerial houses, they experience the effects of load shedding like everybody else in the neighbourhood, as per the municipality’s load shedding schedule,” said Mchunu.
However, the DA said it found it “scandalous that the Bryntirion Estate, a small suburb in Pretoria where the official residences of Ramaphosa’s Cabinet are located, was exempt from load shedding -- while hospitals were not”.
Members of Parliament Ghaleb Cachalia, who is the DA’s spokesperson on public enterprises, and Michele Clarke, the opposition party’s health spokesperson, insisted that “the pampered Cabinet’s Bryntirion Estate should be placed on load shedding schedules, just as everyone else is”.
“According to the National Standard Regulating Load shedding (NRS 048-9:2019), hospitals are some of the national key points listed under institutions that are scheduled for load shedding.
“Although hospitals are required by law to have back-up power sources, and some municipalities, such as the City of Cape Town, exempt them from load shedding, the DA is of the strong view the NRS should not make it optional for hospitals to be exempt from load shedding,” the DA duo said.
“The DA will write to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa calling for an immediate review of the NRS regulations. Hospitals should be designated as exempt from load shedding as a matter of urgency and the pampered Cabinet’s Bryntirion Estate should be placed on load shedding schedules, just like everyone else.
“It is morally wrong for the architects of the ongoing load shedding crisis to have uninterrupted power supply while hospitals, which are often in a race against time to save lives are made to contend with loss of power and unreliable generators.
“With the year 2022 on course to be the worst load shedding year on record, Ramaphosa’s Cabinet has remained clueless on how to solve this urgent national crisis. The economy has lost hundreds of billions of rand and millions of South Africans have lost their jobs due to load shedding, yet the minister’s enclave in Bryntirion Estate continues to receive uninterrupted power supply,” the party argued.
IOL