• Last week the North Gauteng High Court ruled that hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations should be exempt from loadshedding.
• Now the Department of Public Enterprises has said it will appeal the ruling.
• The DPE says that exempting these entities could destabilise an already fragile electrical grid.

Last week the North Gauteng High Court ruled that the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) should move to exempt certain entities from loadshedding.

These include public hospitals and clinics, public schools and police stations. The order was granted after the court found that the applicants’ “fundamental Constitutional rights” had been infringed on by the failures of the organs of state.

The court gave the DPE 60 days from the date of the order to implement the exemptions outlined. You can read the full order below.

However, the Minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, has now said the department will appeal the ruling with a view to having it set aside.

“The department has studied the ruling and has determined through legal advice that the prudent step to take is to lodge an appeal to set aside the ruling and allow for the ongoing efforts to end load shedding to proceed without putting undue risk on the country’s grid infrastructure,” said Gordhan.

“While the department respects the independence of the courts, in this case the department believes that the judgment would have unintended consequences and undermine the very efforts to balance the protection of the rights that were ventilated in this case, with the need to stabilise and protect our grid infrastructure,” the minister added.

Whether the DPE is successful in its appeal remains to be seen. If the department is triumphant, this exemption could scupper plans to keep essential services such as hospitals and police stations functional during power cuts.

The government, however, is likely going to have a hard time convincing the legal fraternity that the likes of hospitals, police stations and schools aren’t to be exempted from power cuts. We’re rather interested to see how this plays out and what sort of precedent is set moving forward.