MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Why I stand with the DA on load shedding case

The DA has taken the South African government to court over the loadshedding crisis that has gripped the country. The party wants the Gauteng High Court to declare the government’s inability and lack of political will to prevent loadshedding a violation of the Bill of Rights and therefore, unlawful. On Monday, the DA argued its case at the court in Pretoria.

At the core of the party’s argument is that the government is not acting urgently to prevent continuous loadshedding. In this regard, the DA wants the court to declare the government as careless. While the party acknowledges that loadshedding is necessary to prevent a total grid collapse, it contends that the government is not doing enough to ease the harm that it causes – an act which it wants the court to declare unconstitutional.

Lawyers for the DA posit that the government has known for over two decades that an electricity crisis was inevitable in the absence of building more energy infrastructure and maintaining existing power stations. This is true.

Following the end of apartheid, the government sought to redress historical injustices that were caused by policies of separate development. These policies had led to the disenfranchisement of the black majority in SA and to uneven development in areas where black people resided. Ensuring equal access to electricity, water and sanitation infrastructure in particular were key priorities for the democratic government. And yet, additional power plants were not commissioned until more than a decade later – with the construction of Medupi beginning in 2007 and Kusile a year later.

SA started experiencing loadshedding in 2008 – the same year that the construction of Kusile began. But over the past few years, it has worsened. Since last year, higher stages of loadshedding have become normal.

The cost to the economy is astounding. According to Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, the minister of electricity, in a public address given at the University of Pretoria, stages 4 to 6 of loadshedding so far this year have cost the economy R1.6-trillion in lost economic activity – almost half a trillion more than last year. He also added that this elevated loadshedding could lead to the loss of 860,000 jobs. In a country with a stagnant economy and one of the highest levels of unemployment in the world, the implications are unthinkable. The country will be plunged into a catastrophe of biblical proportions.

The lack of urgency in resolving the electricity crisis violates nearly every right contained in the Bill of Rights. Some of the rights violated by loadshedding may be obvious, such as the right to healthcare services, but others are not.

For example, the right to citizenship is also violated by loadshedding. The constitution states that everyone has the right to freedom of movement and a passport. And yet, when loadshedding affects the processing of documents at home affairs branches, passports can’t be issued. The right to access to information is also affected because the state and other institutions are migrating data to the digital space. Loadshedding impedes access to this data. Many other rights are directly affected and the effect is severe on the most vulnerable people in our society.

While I hope the DA wins this case, I am cognisant of the fact that the government has proven to be unbothered by declarations of the courts and chapter 9 institutions. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) declared the water crisis in Hammanskraal a violation of human rights in 2021, after years of failure to expand and maintain wastewater treatment plants in the City of Tshwane. And yet, this year Hammanskraal became the epicentre of a devastating cholera outbreak that is linked to the township’s contaminated water supply. No one has been held responsible despite poor governance being the main cause of the water crisis.

Even if the DA wins the case, it might not lead to the immediate resolution of the electricity crisis. But it will achieve a significant moral victory for the people of SA. Our government cannot continue to violate human rights through its lack of political will and failure to resolve some of the most pertinent challenges we face. Electricity and water are some of them – others include housing, quality basic education, crime, etc. A government that fails at doing its job is not only careless, it is also criminal.