DA, ActionSA slam govt for trying to appeal load shedding exemption ruling

CAPE TOWN - The Democratic Alliance (DA) and ActionSA have slammed government, calling it inhumane for trying to appeal a court ruling that's aimed to exempt schools, clinics and other critical public facilities from load shedding.

Last year, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that cutting power to important public facilities was unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, the same court heard arguments from the government and Eskom on their leave to appeal the judgment.

The two parties have maintained that the court order is unreasonable and would bankrupt the government if implemented.

ActionSA’s lawyer, Jillian Benson, said government should be focusing its efforts on ending load shedding rather than fighting the ruling.

"You have got people and babies dying in hospitals and we are told another court is going to come to a different conclusion to that of this court. I cannot see which court or which judge, although I am intending to be flippant, in this country that humanitarian situation that we face, with the deprivation of electricity to citizens and more especially, the vulnerable in this case: which justice in this court is going to come to a different conclusion."

The DA’s lawyer, Anton Katz, said government and Eskom were passing the buck between each other.

He compared the situation to the book written by the late human rights lawyer, George Bizos, titled No One to Blame.

"When there would be a dead person killed by the apartheid police, there would be an inquest, or they died in police custody, let me put it that way. The magistrate would say: 'Well there is a dead body, the man was in police custody and I have to decide as a magistrate who is to blame' and they would come up with ‘no one to blame’. That is what we're doing here. Thirty years into democracy, no one to blame for load shedding."