Public Enterprises ‘determined’ to end planned power cuts
The Department of Public Enterprises says it's determined to bring an end to the rolling blackouts and relieve the hardships brought on by the ongoing power cuts.
The department says it will continue to work on exempting more hospitals, from load shedding.
Seventy-six out of the 213 identified hospitals have already been excluded from the outages.
Another 46 have been brought under consideration.
"The DPE initiated the work to segregate these hospitals, working with the Department of Health. As the government, we are continuously working to determine what other facilities can be isolated from the integrated grid. In certain instances it is not possible.," says spokesperson Richard Mantu.
READ: Stage 6 power cuts until Tuesday
Mantu explained Minister Pravin Gordhan's decision to appeal a recent court ruling is about protecting efforts to stabilise the grid.
The High Court in Pretoria ordered the government earlier this month to take reasonable steps to exempt hospitals, clinics, police stations and schools from blackouts.
"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."
