Presidency says ‘likely’ to appeal load shedding ruling
The Presidency’s Vincent Magwenya says the government is very likely to lodge an appeal against Friday’s load shedding ruling by the High Court in Pretoria.
The court ordered the government to take all reasonable steps to ensure hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations are spared from planned power cuts.
On Friday Judge Norman Davis ordered the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan to "take all reasonable steps" within 60 days to ensure that the ruling is implemented.
This also follows various political parties and organisations like the UDM, IFP, ActionSA, and the National Union of Metalworkers launching a legal bid to spare hospitals and clinics, 23 000 public schools and police stations from load shedding.
They also applied to exempt water and sanitation services, small businesses that deal in perishable goods, and cellphone networks from load shedding, but the judgment only focused on education, health and policing facilities.
"We have significant concerns about the judgment and its impact on the stability of the grid and the negative effect on the fiscus. In that regard, an appeal is very likely," said Magwenya.
The judgment found that there had been repeated breaches by the state of its constitutional and statutory duties and that these breaches infringe citizens' rights to healthcare, security and education.
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