According to the City Press, the Department of Public Enterprises, Eskom, and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) may end up in court over load shedding.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC, a prominent attorney, stated to City Press on Friday (13 January 2023) that he has the support of important organisations and people to take the government and Eskom to court.
According to City Press, these organisations included the United Democratic Movement (UDM), Build One SA leader Mmusi Maimane, policy analyst Lukhona Mnguni, and many minor NGOs in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and Limpopo.
Furthermore, the executive director of the Solidarity movement, Dirk Hermann, stated that his organisation will be in court in two weeks on load shedding.
According to Ngcukaitobi, the government has made inconsistent claims about its efforts to end load shedding. He went on to say that Eskom’s “arbitrary” method of deciding on load shedding phases without notice is unacceptable.
“There’s a constitutional duty of Eskom and government in general to give every citizen access to reliable electricity. Load shedding is therefore unconstitutional.”
“We want to force it through the court to disclose its plan if one exists. The general lack of accountability and transparency must stop,” said Ngcukaitobi.
He predicted that court documents will be served on Eskom, Nersa, and the Department of Public Enterprises this week.
This challenge comes after the failing national power provider Eskom imposed stage 6 load shedding till further notice – the same week, Nersa gave the power utility an almost 19% rise in energy prices for 2023 and roughly 13% increase for 2024.
Several sections of society, including energy and economic professionals, have stated that South Africa’s existing condition of energy generation and rising costs are unsustainable.
According to the activist organisation Rise Mzansi, the impacts of load shedding, a tariff hike more than three times the rate of inflation, and the rest of South Africa’s decaying infrastructure paint a picture of a country on the verge of failure and collapse.
According to Neil Roets, CEO of Debt Rescue, the consequences of rolling blackouts already represent a severe danger to people’s lives and livelihoods, not least in terms of food security, at a time when over 80% of families are struggling to put enough food on the table.
Stakeholders in the agricultural sector told agriculture minister Thoko Didiza on Friday (13 January 2023) that if the country’s farmers are not put on various load shedding schedules, the country will lose food security within the next 24 months.
Stakeholders also emphasised that load shedding and rising tariffs would severely limit the agriculture sector’s potential to create jobs.
According to Agri SA CEO Christo van der Rheede, the sword hanging over the agriculture sector’s head is something the government cannot afford to ignore, as chaos might emerge if action is not done quickly.
Other disadvantages, according to Roets, include the likelihood of more firms going down, particularly small enterprises that lack the means to invest in costly alternative energy producers, as well as the consequences in terms of unemployment when they are forced to let workers go.
“There can be no economic stability without a stable power supply, he explained.
