In a shock verdict, the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria has ruled that all hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations should be spared from electricity disruptions.

Judge Norman Davis ordered the Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan to “take all reasonable steps” within 60 days to ensure that public health establishments, state schools and the South African Police Service are not affected by load shedding.

The United Democratic Movement (UDM), Inkatha Freedom Party, Action SA, the National Union of Metalworkers and other organisations launched a legal bid to spare hospitals and clinics, 23 000 public schools and police stations from load shedding. They also applied to exempt water and sanitation services, small businesses that deal in perishable goods, and cellphone networks from load shedding, but the judgment only focused on education, health and policing facilities.

Former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter previously warned that halting load shedding to hospitals, schools and police stations could trigger a national blackout.

The sheer number of facilities that would have to be excluded from load shedding would put immense strain on the system.

Eskom also contended that it will be technically impossible to isolate and exclude some buildings from load shedding, given how embedded they are in Eskom’s transmission and distribution networks, and that they share distribution lines with thousands of other customers.

“Given the very large number of institutions and facilities the applicants seek to protect from load shedding and the fact that most are embedded in distribution networks spread throughout the country, were they to be excluded from load shedding, there would be very little load left to shed to reduce demand on the grid. This presents a manifest risk of grid collapse or blackout,” De Ruyter said.

But Friday’s judgment notes that where it’s impossible to isolate embedded buildings and spare them from load shedding, Gordhan must ensure that generators and other alternate energy supplies are secured to ensure uninterrupted power.

“It is clear that, whatever the President and his Cabinet ministers averred, the consequences of policy decisions resulted in the current need by Eskom to continue to implement various levels of load shedding,” the ruling stated.

The judgment found that there had been repeated breaches by the state of its Constitutional and statutory duties and that these breaches infringe citizens’ rights to healthcare, security and education.

Judgment was reserved on Part B of the case. The UDM and others want the court to issue an order to hold president Cyril Ramaphosa legally responsible for the human cost of load shedding. 

The article has been updated with additional information.