Eskom must provide answers about the ongoing electricity crisis, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) said on Friday.
In a statement, the SAHRC said it and the Public Protector could soon work together in an investigation to establish why Eskom had instituted power cuts to the extent that it has recently.
Earlier this week, Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana sent a letter to Eskom saying he was considering investigating the power cuts because they were having a devastating effect on service delivery by the government.
The SAHRC said: ”The commission is concerned about news reports that load shedding as is currently being implemented by Eskom is negatively affecting the provision of essential services and, by extension, human rights.”
In a letter to the Public Protector, the commission said it was compelled to make its concerns known about the negative impact of the deliberate power cuts on the enjoyment of human rights.
In particular, it said access to information would enable people to enjoy their economic and social rights and that the information was inaccessible to most people over the internet.
”It is clear that Eskom is not providing adequate, accurate and timeous information to consumers to allow them to plan their lives and businesses around the load-shedding schedule,” said the SAHRC.
”It has also been mooted that there is no equitable load shedding across all areas.”
The SAHRC said it had also been reported that Eskom had not properly engaged emergency services, police stations, hospitals and healthcare facilities.
”The SAHRC would be pleased to participate, within the confines of its mandate, in the Public Protector’s process of engagement on this matter,” the letter to the protector read.
The commission said it had the power, in terms of its constitution, to investigate and report on the observance of human rights and to take steps for redress where human rights had been violated.
”These include the power to call any other person to appear before it and produce to it all articles or documents in his or her possession or under his or her control and which may be necessary in connection with such an investigation,” it said.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said it shared in the people’s anger at the disruption to their lives and the economic fall-out to them regarding the power cuts.
”It has become a serious national embarrassment and could have a major impact on economic growth and job creation,” said Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven.
Of particular concern were reports that poorer communities were exposed to longer cuts than affluent, formerly white suburbs.
He said these suburbs had better access to the media to complain.
”We demand that at the very least Eskom communicate far more effectively with the public to inform us in good time when power will go off and for how long,” said Craven.
Cosatu, however, said Eskom was not to blame for the crisis.
”They warned the government years ago that they needed money to invest in new power stations, and applied to the government for this.
”But the government refused to provide the money, which President [Thabo] Mbeki has now admitted and apologised for,” said Craven.
Because the government was set on privatising Eskom and other public utilities, and selling them off to the highest bidder, they had made the supplier inefficient.
”Cosatu consistently opposed privatisation precisely because we insisted that it must be a national service, efficiently providing secure and affordable power to the people and to industry.”
Craven said this could never be achieved by a utility that was motivated to maximise its profits.
”We demand that the government and industry now speed up the process of providing Eskom with the money they need for capital investment so that we can bring an end to the crisis as quickly as possible.”
Cosatu reiterated its demand that Eskom not impose its planned 14,2% tariff increase, Craven said.
Eskom was repeatedly not available for comment on Friday.
‘Crisis’
Meanwhile, the acting leader of the Independent Democrats, Simon Grindrod, has called for Eskom to lure back the skills it had lost.
On Friday he cited ”the loss of engineers, project managers and other highly skilled employees as one of the main reasons for the current crisis at national power supplier Eskom”.
He reacted to what he called ”Eskom’s ridiculous statement” to the government that it must stop marketing our country as an investment destination for major industrial developments over the next five years, saying: ”We are in this mess because of expensive restructuring exercises carried out at the energy supplier in recent years.
”This has led to a skills meltdown at Eskom. We in the ID believe in transformation with excellence, and it is now time to call a spade a spade. It is obvious that Eskom no longer has in its staffing structure people with the expertise and the forward-thinking ability to properly manage our nation’s power supply.”
Continued power cuts
Power cuts are expected to continue over the weekend and into next week, Eskom said in a statement on Friday.
There was a ”high possibility of load shedding over the weekend as the electricity system is extremely tight”, the utility warned.
It said the planned cuts were likely to continue through next week and called on consumers to use electricity sparingly.
”All South Africans need to pull together and save electricity because every little bit of saving counts,” it said.
Eskom said it was working with municipalities and regional disaster-management committees to coordinate scheduling of the power cuts.
”We hope this will assist in minimising the inconvenience caused on the roads, and improve our forewarning to electricity consumers. We are also taking into account suggestions from consumers,” it said.
Consumers could view plans on where it plans to cut power on its website, www.eskom.co.za. Alternatively, they could find details on municipal websites or contact the Eskom call centre on 08600 37566. — Sapa