- Democratic Alliance (DA) calls for a declaration of load shedding and electricity crisis as unconstitutional.
- The alliance claims the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s tariff hike is extortionate.
Power utility Eskom announced stage 5 load shedding today. In a statement, Eskom said this was due to the loss of four generation units overnight. As Eskom said it would update the public, the Stage 5 load shedding implementation ends today.
Recall that the Electricity Minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, described last week’s Stage 6 load shedding as extraordinary. In a media briefing in Pretoria, Ramokgopa predicted this week’s Stage 3 and 4 load shedding. He also said that the Kusile Power station would end load shedding issues.
He said there would be short-term pain but long-term gain as they were unwilling to compromise on maintenance programmes to keep the lights on. “We are going to take the necessary measures to resolve load shedding. We will not take shortcuts to defeat load shedding,” he said.
In a related development, Democratic Alliance leader, John Steenhuisen, has said that the alliance want the electricity crisis and load shedding to be declared unconstitutional. The alliance argues that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (NERSA) tariff hike is unreasonable, adding that the national increase is unaffordable for most South Africans.
Steenhuisen stated that this is one of the issues with Eskom’s monopoly on electricity supply, and opening the market would bring down the prices.
“Electricity is a basic human right along with water. NERSA is putting far too much pressure on households. Eskom has for decades not spent enough on grid development. That is why we are left behind in a terrible situation where the lights are off in our homes and our businesses. If load shedding was declared unconstitutional, it would force the government to put a workable plan on the table to fix the situation,” he added.