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BL Premium reports that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says technical assessments are being made of critical establishments to determine whether they can be connected to the grid during load-shedding, and if not then alternative measures will be sought to provide them with electricity.
He stressed when answering a parliamentary question on Wednesday that there was no lack of willingness on the part of the government or Eskom to ensure that critical facilities received electricity as required, but there were technical and practical impediments that had to be overcome. The universal application of a recent court judgment was, however, not technically possible. “Eskom intends to find solutions to exempt schools, hospitals, clinics and police stations where this is feasible. At present Eskom is engaging with these entities regarding their points of supply. Once this engagement has been completed and where possible, measures will be implemented to mitigate the impact of load-shedding as far as is practically possible,” Gordhan said. Last month the Pretoria High Court ruled that load-shedding at public health facilities, schools and police stations constituted an infringement of constitutional rights. Gordhan said the government was appealing against the judgment as it was impractical to implement in the way it was enunciated. He pointed out that Eskom exempted or partially exempted more than 70 public health establishments and was looking at another 200 of them.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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