PHUTI MOSOMANE
DURING Thursday’s proceedings in the North Gauteng High Court, it was argued that the government’s implementation of load shedding constituted a violation of fundamental human rights.
Since Monday, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has appeared before the court together with several other applicants, including the Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU), UDM, SAFTU and other applicants, in an effort to force government to stop loadshedding.
NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim said it is ironic that during Human Rights Month the trade union federation is compelled to take government to court for its daily violation of human rights, caused by loadshedding crisis.
“This is a government led by the ANC which was part of the liberation movement, whose current leadership are the very same people who fought for the same rights under Apartheid. However, now that they are in power, they have betrayed the working class and are now denying them the very same hard won rights,” Jim said.
Part A of the case was heard from the 20th of March until the 23rd of March.
In this part of the case, parties are hoping the court will grant them relief in that all “critical sectors of the economy be granted exemption from loadshedding. This means we are asking the court to exempt all public healthcare facilities, public schools and all police stations from rolling blackouts,” he said.
He said both the national government and Eskom have caused loadshedding crisis.
In 1999, the White Paper on Electricity stipulated that the State had to prepare to increase capacity because they would run out of electricity.
However, parties accused successive governments of doing very little to mitigate against the electricity disaster.
“This government has betrayed the constitution and their inaction has sparked a humanitarian crisis in public health care facilities, because loadshedding has made life hell for patients and staff alike. This is backed up by evidence provided by workers in the sector,” he said.
The health workers trade union, HAITU and Professor Rudo Mathiva, a Professor of Critical Care at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg, provided detailed evidence about the deadly effects of rolling blackouts.
According to HAITU, loadshedding can have devastating consequences when women are in labour are involved.
HAITU General Secretary, Lerato Mthunzi, said: “It’s a matter of life and death because the mortality rates go up with every power cut. Especially if a person is on resuscitation or oxygen. If things don’t go as planned, someone dies every time there is a power cut.”
Mathiva confirmed this in her sworn affidavit to the court which stated that: “There have been several instances where patients succumb and the cause of death is described in many different ways in circumstances where the cause of death may have actually been due to load shedding.”
Parties told the court that persistent rolling blackouts meant that children are also unable to access education; patients in public hospitals are unable to access health care, and communities are unable to get services from the police.
The State in its submissions told the court all hospitals have generators, a submission unions outrightly dismissed.
But public schools have no generators, and “they seemingly do not care that learners in our underfunded and under-resourced public schools are forced to go home every time the power goes out. This denies them access to Education and it will have a devastating impact on them in future,” the parties said.
“The State has demonstrated a general apathy and a total lack of urgency when it comes to resolving this crisis,” lawyers representing NUMSA and other parties told the court.
According to earlier media reports, President Cyril Ramaphosa opposed the application in his own capacity and on behalf of government, arguing that neither he nor government had failed to fulfil their obligations because the law places the responsibility for providing electricity with municipalities.
His response to the court challenge drew an outcry from some quarters, with many taking aim at the president.
“We have called on the court to allocate responsibility where it rests, because the State has a duty to act, especially in the face of loss of life,” Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi said.
“You do not shrug your shoulders when rights violations are not denied, and legal responsibility is clear. You grapple with the problem and put interim solutions, but there is no scope for doing nothing.”
Jim said the organisations were thankful to “the excellent work done by our brilliant legal team, led by Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, and Eric Mabuza of Mabuza Attorneys, and all other attorneys involved in the case.”
“They took this matter on and they volunteered their time and did the work pro-bono, in order to serve the public in this epic struggle against an uncaring government. We are entirely in their debt for the selfless work that they have done in fighting this battle.”
Thursday is the last day of the court case for the first part of the application.
A date will still be allocated to hear Part B of the application, which deals with compelling the government to find a permanent solution to the crisis so that these sectors never have to experience an interruption in electricity supply.
For Part A of the application, judgement was reserved, and a decision will be communicated in due course.
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