Johnathan Paoli
THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has become the latest trade union to welcome the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, judgement, ordering the Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa to take all reasonable steps to ensure that there is sufficient supply of electricity to prevent load shedding in critical sectors of the economy.
On Friday, the court ruled that load shedding was an infringement of the constitutional rights of South Africans, and ordered the ministry to rectify within 60 days and ensure sufficient electricity supply was guaranteed in public health facilities, schools and police stations during power interruptions.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said schools, police stations, clinics and hospitals provided critical services to communities and thus should be exempt from power cuts.
“Numsa has been vindicated for playing a central role in putting up this fight with other working-class formations and political parties. This victory belongs to the working class and the poor of our country,” Hlubi-Majola said.
The spokesperson said that other critical sectors in the economy, such as, the engineering, metal, steel, auto sector, smelters, mines and other companies in terms of backwards and forward linkages in terms of upstream and downstream industries, are victims of deliberate economic sabotage caused by rolling blackouts, which have been allowed by government.
In addition, NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim called into question the geopolitical condition of the country, and its seemingly forced and rapid transition to forms of power generation not dependent upon fossil fuels.
“South Africa is a developing country and not a developed country, therefore in terms of the Paris Accord where all countries committed to a Just transition, all developing countries including South Africa, are allowed to transition at a pace and at a cost that takes into account their own concrete conditions,” Jim said.
The union further said that the government chose to transition faster than the rest of the world, and this is what is at the centre of this crisis that has engulfed the country today, which has resulted in rolling blackouts.
“It is absurd that South Africa wants to be seen by the rest of the world to have decarbonised quickly, and they are willing to do it at the expense of the economy,” Jim said.
Jim said that the ANC government was willing to plunge millions of South Africans, who were already ravaged by the triple crisis of poverty, unemployment and inequality, into an even deeper socio-economic crisis.
“Whose class interest is being advanced when President Cyril Ramaphosa and Pravin Gordhan, the minister of Public Enterprises, are forcefully subjecting the country to rolling blackouts that are sabotaging the economy, when other countries in the world are allowed to still use coal, nuclear and gas and to determine their own transition as sovereign countries,” Jim said.
The union said that the latest court decision meant that government had no choice but to take decisive action to ensure they uphold the court order and that the state must withdraw from all the deals they signed with the World Bank and other international financial institutions.
In conclusion, Jim called for the government to conduct a proper consultation process with all social partners in the country so as to enable the public to decide on an energy mix which is suitable for all South Africans.
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