Harare — The beginning of 2023 has seen a worsening of scheduled power outages in South Africa after beleaguered national utility Eskom announced it would continue its worst-ever outages indefinitely.
The power outages, when at Stage 6, left most South Africans without power for six to eight hours per day, but hours after President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that he would not be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Eskom moved South Africans to Stage 4.
According to a report from Rapport newspaper, several organizations in South Africa have threatened to file legal action against Eskom due to the negative effects of frequent load-shedding and the utility's unwillingness to offer a thorough plan to deal with the cyclical power cuts.
Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, one of the nation's most accomplished attorneys, and lobby group Solidarity are prominent parties who are considering suing the parastatal. Ngcukaitobi is gathering backing for a coordinated legal battle that will be led by former attorney for former President Jacob Zuma, Eric Mabuza, with four seasoned attorneys and three younger advocates willing to help, according to the report.
Ngcukaitobi says South Africans are being kept in the dark about the true causes of the power disruptions and that the utility had a constitutional obligation to deliver dependable electricity to the nation.
He added that Eskom's decision to conduct load shedding was arbitrary and that the frequent short notice for power outages was unacceptable.
The lawyer's team intends to file documents this week, according to the Rapport.
The United Democratic Movement's Bantu Holomisa, former Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimaine, and a number of non-profit organizations in Gauteng, Limpopo, and the Eastern Cape are already backing the substantive legal team.
"If we ignore 4-hour load shedding sessions, 12 hours a day of lack of power, this government will make us sit in the dark for the whole week soon. They are turning South Africa into South Zimbabwe through looting and incompetence and we can't allow that, not this year. Not ever," Maimane said in a statement on Twitter.
Meanwhile, South Africa's Finance Minister says the government plans to increase energy provision that will eliminate the need for any power outages within the next 12 to 18 months.
"Eventually in the next 12-18 months we will be able to say load-shedding is a thing of the past. That is the target," Godongwana, told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss resort of Davos.
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Godongwana is at the World Economic Forum (WEF) to meet with global leaders in government, business and civil society to sell South Africa as an investment destination.
Eskom is no stranger to legal wranglings.
Between 2008 and 2015, Eskom faced several legal challenges claiming damages from load-shedding. However, the majority of these cases were dismissed because the courts were hesitant to hold the utility liable.
