Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan
Photo by: Bloomberg
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has said his department will lodge an urgent appeal to set aside the judgment handed down by the North Gauteng High Court on May 5 that schools, hospitals and police stations must be spared from loadshedding.
Judge Norman Davis ordered Gordhan to take all reasonable steps within 60 days to ensure these places of interest are not affected by loadshedding, as it infringes on Constitutional rights.
The ruling follows a legal bid by fellow political parties, a trade union and other organisations to spare hospitals, public schools and police stations from loadshedding; however, Eskom itself has warned that halting loadshedding to certain facilities could trigger a national blackout.
"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 loadshedding to proceed without putting undue risk on the country’s grid infrastructure," Gordhan states.
While the Minister and his department respect 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 grid infrastructure.