The impact of load shedding has dismantled the country’s economy, according to National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).
In an interview with SABC News, NUMSA spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said that the impact of load shedding undermines all South African’s basic rights.
Moreover he notes that load shedding has cost the economy and SA thousands of jobs and has devastated businesses.
The union is one of many organisations that have taken government to court over load shedding .
Hlubi-Majola said: “We argued that the rolling blackouts were undermining the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution - where the state has a duty to provide education, access to healthcare, and guarantee safety”.
“The fact that we have these daily constant blackouts, also known as load-shedding, means that those rights are being undermined.”
Earlier this month the courts ruled that NUMSA and the other stakeholders had a point and that load shedding did violate South African human rights.
According to the Outlier, there has been 6947 hours of loading shedding so far this year.
The organisation also noted that SA had 205 days in 2022 of load shedding.
FESTIVE SEASON
Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said in mid December that he is confident that there will be no load shedding in the next two weeks as South Africans enjoy the festive season.
Ramokgopa was speaking during a briefing on the implementation of the Energy Action Plan (EAP) last week.
He said the outlook over the festive period was upbeat.
“I’m confident that we’ll have a festive season with the lights on, not the candle … we will have the proper lights to make sure we usher in 2024.”
However, he conceded that the true test would come when the big industries, which have closed for the year-end break, come back online in January.
“It’s about sustaining the South African economy so you can’t celebrate the fact that you don’t have load shedding when the South African economy is gone on a temporary break. You want to have this situation at the height, at the peak of performance of the economy.”
Ramokgopa said part of the EAP was to improve the energy availability factor (EAF), which includes the rate of failure of these units and improving their efficiency.
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