Eskom chief executive Dan Marokane says coal is important for the country to drive industrialisation. (Getty Images)
Opposition parties and South Africa’s biggest trade unions are due to square up against Eskom in the Pretoria high court on February 28 over load-shedding and the approval of an 18.65% tariff hike.
Earlier this month, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved Eskom’s request for a tariff increase.
Addressing a media briefing, Bantu Holomisa, leader of the Democratic Movement, Mmusi Maimane, leader of Build One South Africa, and Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, said they would be filing a legal challenge against Eskom; minerals and energy Minister Gwede Mantashe; public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan; Nersa and President Cyril Ramaphosa.
This comes after they sent a letter, issued by Mabuza Attorneys, last week to demand that the minister, outgoing Eskom chief executive Andre de Ruyter and the government as a whole meet certain demands by January 20, failing which they would launch a constitutional challenge with regard to ongoing load-shedding.
Their list of seven demands included that the 18.65% increase “will not be implemented pending the determination of the court challenge which our clients intend to institute”.
“There will be no load-shedding without procedural fairness and an opportunity to those affected to make alternative arrangements for power supply, and that the state agrees to compensate anyone who has suffered quantifiable financial loss as a result of load-shedding,” the letter reads.
Holomisa said when load-shedding happens, many public hospitals lose the ability to provide proper services. Although many do have generators to provide backup power, it is not a sustainable option.
“Frequent blackouts also affect medical equipment — as health equipment has been upgraded and requires an uninterrupted power source, they get damaged as continuous power cuts occur.
“Consumables, such as pharmaceuticals, medications and vaccines, that require cold storage are also a concern as they are unable to be kept at the appropriate temperature during load-shedding.”
The safety of healthcare workers was also compromised because those who finished late or started in the early hours of the morning were vulnerable to criminals in areas which were not lit, due to blackouts.
He added that municipalities were battling rampant cable theft, with instances drastically increasing over the festive period because of load-shedding.
On Sunday, Eskom board chair Mpho Makwana said a plant performance recovery plan was in the final stages of being approved.
The plan aims to improve the Eskom coal fleet’s energy availability factor (EAF) to a “desirable level” in two years. While the global norm is an EAF of 86%, Eskom plans to move from an EAF of 58% currently to 70% in two years. The EAF for the coal fleet is worse than it has ever been at 52%.
The EAF is the percentage of Eskom’s generation capacity that’s available, compared to its overall installed generation capacity.
Maimane said forcing South Africans into darkness was an insult and rejected the plan presented by Makwana on Sunday.
He added that members of the ANC must be removed from the list of exemption that protects them from load-shedding.
Jim said the ANC government was not serious about solving load-shedding because it kept pushing an agenda from the West to get rid of coal power stations, yet Germany was going back to coal.
“The West has been hypocritical — it has told us to close down our coal power stations, when they continue to buy our coal to stabilise their energy grids.
He added that it would be wise for Ramaphosa to embrace an energy mix because “there were reports that renewable energy alone would not sustain the country”.