Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, says the department will be appealing the judgement handed down by the North Gauteng High Court last Friday.
The judgement ordered that hospitals, schools and police stations be exempted from load shedding and also gave the Public Enterprises Minister 60 days to ensure that those public facilities have sufficient electricity supply.
Gordhan said the judgement raises serious concerns about Eskom’s efforts to ensure stability of the national grid in the context of the current power constraints.
The country has been on Stage 6 load shedding since Sunday following the delay in return to service of several generation units and breakdowns at power stations.
“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,” he said.
He emphasised that the judgement could deal a serious blow to the national power 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,” Gordhan said. – SAnews.gov.za
