Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has been ordered by the High Court to “take all reasonable steps” – by no later than 31 January – to ensure public hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations are not affected by load shedding.
In a unanimous judgment of three judges, Judge Norman Davis called the order “just and equitable”, once the court had determined that load shedding breached several constitutional rights.
TimesLIVE reports that the same Bench had granted a similar order in May, that one being directed at the Public Enterprises Minister, who had appealed against it.
Davis said in his judgment the grounds of appeal had been that “the order was alleged to be vague … impossible to implement as the Minister did not have the power to generate and supply electricity, that the order was not competent in law for the same reason and that the order violated the separation of powers”.
The effect of the application for leave to appeal was to put the May order on hold. But what then happened, in September, was that it fell away. This was because the applicants, the UDM, other political parties, trade unions and individuals, ended up withdrawing the second half of their case, or Part B.
This meant that Part A, under which the May order was given, lapsed. The application for leave to appeal then became “moot”.
In a complicated turn of events, because three different cases on load shedding were being heard together, the DA’s and the SA Local Government Association’s (Salga) cases, which overlapped with the UDM’s case, remained, and were argued before the same judges.
In the judgment, Davis said the government had conceded that people’s rights had been breached.
He said the court was “mindful” of the separation of powers and that orders implicating budgets of organs of state should be exercised sparingly. But “nowhere has it been indicated in the opposing papers … that the relief previously granted in Part A of the UDM’s application would cripple the state”, he said.
It was also clear the government’s plans all envisaged “some relief at some future date (only)”.
The appointment of a Minister of Electricity took care of the Minister of Public Enterprise’s objections in his application for leave to appeal, said the judgment.
“We find no cogent reasons why those orders, albeit slightly modified, dealing with immediate relief cannot and should not be granted. To do so would at least provide relief for learners going into the new school year,” he said.
However, all the other orders sought by the parties were refused by the court.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Hospitals to be exempt from load shedding but it won’t happen overnight
Legal action threat as hospitals struggle with load shedding
Calls to exempt hospitals and clinics from load shedding