Opposition parties and the largest unions in South Africa will face off against Eskom in Pretoria’s high court on February 28 over the reduction of the charge and the approval of an 18.65% rate increase.
Earlier this month, South Africa’s National Energy Regulator (Nersa) approved Eskom’s request for a rate increase.
At a press conference, Bantu Holomisa, leader of the Democratic Movement, Mmusi Maimane, leader of Build One South Africa, and Irvin Jim, general secretary of the South African National Union of Metalworkers, said they would file a legal challenge against Eskom. ; the Minister of Minerals and Energy, Gwede Mantashe; the minister of public companies, Pravin Gordhan; Nersa and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This comes after they sent a letter, issued by Mabuza Abogados, last week demanding that the minister, outgoing Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter and the government as a whole comply with certain demands by January 20. Otherwise, they would launch a constitutional challenge regarding the ongoing load shedding.
His list of seven demands included that the 18.65% increase “will not be implemented until the legal challenge that our clients intend to institute is determined.”
“There will be no load shedding without procedural fairness and an opportunity for those affected to make alternative arrangements for power supply, and for the state to agree to compensate anyone who has suffered a quantifiable financial loss as a result of load shedding,” the statement says. letter. read
Holomisa said that when a load reduction occurs, many public hospitals lose the ability to provide adequate services. Although many have generators to provide backup power, it is not a sustainable option.
“Frequent blackouts also affect medical equipment: since healthcare equipment has been upgraded and requires an uninterruptible power supply, it gets damaged due to continuous power outages.
“Consumables such as pharmaceuticals, medicines and vaccines that require cold storage are also a concern as they cannot be kept at the proper temperature during load shedding.”
The safety of health workers was also compromised because late finishers or early morning starts were vulnerable to criminals in areas that were not lit due to blackouts.
He added that municipalities were fighting rampant cable theft, with cases rising sharply over the festive period due to reduced load.
On Sunday, Eskom’s chairman of the board, Mpho Makwana, said a plan to restore the plant’s performance was in the final stages of approval.
The plan aims to improve the energy availability factor (EAF) of Eskom’s coal fleet to a “desirable level” within two years. While the global norm is an 86% electric electric oven, Eskom plans to go from a current 58% electric oven to 70% electric within two years. The electric arc furnace for the coal fleet is worse than ever at 52%.
The EAF is the percentage of Eskom’s generation capacity that is available, compared to its overall installed generation capacity.
Maimane said that forcing South Africans into the dark was an insult and rejected the plan presented by Makwana on Sunday.
He added that ANC members should be removed from the exemption list that protects them from cargo shedding.
Jim said the ANC government was not serious about the load shedding solution because it was still pushing a Western agenda to get rid of coal power plants, but Germany was going back to coal.
“The West has been hypocritical: it has told us to shut down our coal-fired power plants, when they continue to buy our coal to stabilize their power grids.
He added that it would be prudent for Ramaphosa to adopt an energy mix because “there were reports that renewable energy alone would not sustain the country.”
