TimesLIVE reports that if it were up to President Cyril Ramaphosa, he would shield schools, clinics, hospitals and police stations from rolling blackouts, but he has been informed that this would collapse the electricity grid.

“Ideally, I would personally want all those hospitals and schools to be exempt, but from an engineering point of view, I am told, it is practically impossible to do. Now we are faced with a court judgment and the impracticality of it all," said Ramaphosa. The president made the remarks in parliament on Thursday. He explained that appealing the court order will bring to bear a better understanding of the engineering and impractical aspects of it all. “It’s not being done in an arrogant way or in a way where we are trying to second-guess the court, it’s being done to ensure that we save the grid, otherwise it would collapse if we were to implement that judgment in full," he told MPs. It was reported on Monday that the public enterprises department would be filing an urgent appeal against the court order that government must ensure public hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations are shielded from load-shedding. The interim order, handed down last Friday, and which must be implemented within 60 days, states the minister “shall take all reasonable steps ... to ensure there shall be sufficient supply or generation of electricity to prevent any interruption of supply as a result of load-shedding”. The judgment came after an application was brought by 19 organisations, including trade union Numsa, opposition parties, NGOs and individuals.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Amanda Khoza at TimesLIVE
• Read too, Grid likely to collapse if schools, hospitals are exempted from load shedding, Ramaphosa warns, at IOL

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