State hospitals spent about R700m to avoid load-shedding, says Phaahla

State hospitals spent almost R700m to avoid load-shedding from April 1 2022 to February 28. 

Responding to a written parliamentary question from Freedom Front Plus MP Philippus Adriaan van Staden, health minister Dr Joe Phaahla revealed hospitals spent R685,935,000 on diesel. Hospitals were R19,281,000 over budget.

According to the statistics shared by the minister, KwaZulu-Natal spent the most at R178,387,000, followed by Gauteng at R131,357,000 and the Western Cape at R102,68,000. 

The Free State and Northern Cape recorded the lowest amounts at R21,263,000 and R28,303,000, respectively. 

Phaahla said he told health director-general Sandile Buthelezi to meet Eskom to seek interventions to mitigate against load-shedding. 

“The first engagement took place on September 22 2022. The meetings with Eskom are held regularly to seek more exemptions for healthcare facilities. There are further ongoing engagements with the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs and various municipalities regarding additional exemptions for private and public healthcare facilities from the grid,” said Phaahla. 

President Cyril Ramaphosa last month told the National Council of Provinces the government is working on exempting critical infrastructure, especially hospitals, from rolling blackouts. 

“As many as 77 hospitals have been exempted to date. Eskom has identified a further 46 hospitals that can be excluded from load-shedding with additional infrastructure,” he said.

Former co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma gazetted regulations on essential infrastructure that may be exempted or granted reduced load-shedding schedules. 

These are:

• health infrastructure, including military health facilities;
• water infrastructure, including water treatment plants;
• rail and ports infrastructure;
• food production and food storage facilities where feasible, and;
• critical electronic communications and broadcasting infrastructure.

Eskom implemented stage 6 load-shedding on Monday until 5am on Tuesday. Stage 5 will be implemented until 4pm and stage 6 from 4pm until 5am daily. 

The power utility said this pattern will be repeated until further notice. Eskom will publish an update as soon as significant changes occur. 

Breakdowns are at 17,325MW of generating capacity and planned maintenance at 5,457MW, said Eskom. 

The South African Reserve Bank previously told Bloomberg  stage 6 load-shedding cost the country R900m a day.