Public Enterprises to appeal court ruling on load shedding
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan on Monday announced the department's decision to lodge an urgent appeal against a High Court ruling which ordered the government to exempt hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations from power cuts.
On Friday Judge Norman Davis ordered 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.
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.
In a statement released on Monday, Gordhan said the department has serious concerns about the implications of the court ruling on the current efforts to stabilise the national grid.
"The department has studied the ruling and has determined through legal advice that the prudent step to take is to lodge an appeal to set aside the ruling and allow for the ongoing efforts to end load shedding to proceed without putting undue risk on the country's grid infrastructure.
"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," said Gordhan.
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