The government keeps up its effort to prevent load shedding

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The government keeps up its effort to prevent load shedding

According to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, efforts by the government to prevent load
shedding at crucial service institutions are still ongoing. Approximately 76 hospitals have already
been exempted from the continuous power cuts, and work is still being done to exempt 46 more.
This came when the North Gauteng High Court mandated that load shedding does not apply to
hospitals, schools, or police stations. The Public Enterprises Minister was also given 60 days by the
court to make sure that such public institutions have enough electrical supply.


According to Gordhan, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) had already initiated efforts with
the Health Department and Eskom to identify 213 facilities that need continuous electricity supply.
“The DPE initiated the work to segregate these hospitals, working with the Department of Health. As
government, we are continuously working to determine what other facilities can be isolated from
the integrated grid. In certain instances, it is not possible,” he said.


On the subject of load shedding, Gordhan stated that the government has increased efforts to boost
Eskom’s generation capacity and reduce load shedding.


The power company continues to deal with generating unit failures and delays in getting them back
into operation at power plants, which results in higher levels of load shedding.
“It is regrettable that as a country we do not have an adequate supply of electricity. This is the
reason we have load shedding, and our efforts are targeted at ensuring that our generation capacity
is urgently increased.


“The load shedding that is affecting families, schools, health care and business facilities is
regrettable. This is not wilful, and it is not in the absence of continued and determined efforts to
mitigate the negative impacts of load shedding,” Gordhan said.
The department said Gordhan has cautioned against political point scoring related to load shedding.