Manyane Manyane
PUBLIC Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan should take the blame for the deaths in hospitals as well as unsolved crimes after announcing his intention to appeal the court ruling ordering the government to end load shedding in facilities such as public hospitals, schools, and police stations.
The organisations that brought the application before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria said Gordhan’s intention to challenge the court ruling would leave patients in public hospitals in great danger.
The ruling, which was made by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria last week, ordered the government to implement Gordhan to take reasonable steps to ensure the sufficient supply or generation of electricity to prevent any interruption of power supply as a result of load shedding to these facilities.
The court ordered that this should be implemented within 60 days.
In the statement released on Monday, Gordhan said his department had serious concerns about the implications of the court ruling on the current efforts to stabilise the national grid and get the country out of load shedding.
“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.
Asked when the department would be filing its application, Gordhan’s spokesperson Ellis Mnyandu said the office would not making further comments on the appeal beyond what was communicated in the media statement.
The application was brought by the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Action SA, the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa), and 15 others.
They sought hospitals and clinics, public schools and police stations to be exempted from load shedding, along with water and sanitation services, small businesses that deal with perishable goods, and cellphone networks.
However, the judgment only focused on education, health, and policing facilities.
Numsa’s spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said Gordhan would have to take the blame if there were more deaths, or if children were denied education, as a result of the court ruling.
“The court judgment did no more than require the state to meet its constitutional duty to ensure access to healthcare, security and education. Now the state has elected not to comply, but instead, it is going to waste taxpayer money on frivolous appeals.
“If there are any more deaths, as a result of this ruling, or if children are denied education and unresolved crimes, it will be because of the selfish actions of Minister Gordhan and the ANC-led government,” Hlubi-Majola said.
Hlubi-Majola said load shedding had been caused by the state and the court simply instructs them to stop its “constitutional delinquency” and comply with the basic laws of the country.
“When (former) president Jacob Zuma was removed as president because of his numerous breaches of the law, there were some who were optimistic that the ‘new dawn’ would bring about respect to the constitution. But this has proven to be a false dawn because the culture of constitutional delinquency has persisted,” she said.
In the same breath was IFP MPL Velenkosini Hlabisa who said it was unfortunate that the government has decided to appeal a decision that shows its failure to execute its constitutional responsibilities.
“As far as the IFP is concerned, the ruling party’s government has failed the people of South Africa. For example, during load shedding hospitals cannot perform certain duties, and operations in theatres cannot go ahead, leaving those who cannot afford to go to private hospitals in great danger.
“When it comes to schools, most of our learners – especially black learners, who are the majority in our country – lose out on valuable learning time in the classroom, as during load shedding, educators cannot perform any activities that require electricity. Again, it is the poorest of the poor that bear the brunt,” Hlabisa said.
He further instead of shirking their constitutional mandate and running to overturn this judgment, the government should take these 60 days to think outside the box for possible ways to procure generators for schools, hospitals, and police stations.
Action SA’s head of strategic litigation advocate Gill Benson said the party found the proposed appeal a waste of costs and a disregard for the citizens who were most exposed and vulnerable as a result of the deprivation of electricity which disregards their basic inalienable human rights.
“We intend to oppose the application for leave to appeal when and if it arrives, in that the government itself promised generators and alternative energy sources as per their generator affidavit,” she said.
In the meantime, Build One SA (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane has launched a petition against the government to suspend its application to review a court decision.