Leader of the opposition John Steeinhuisen announced on Tuesday afternoon that he had instructed party lawyers to immediately apply to the High Court of South Africa for an interdict, to stop the tariff increase.  

He said the time “for writing letters and for government talkshops” and for “begging this government” was over, and “it’s now time to take this government head-on”.  

The announcement came hours after several politicians and business people, in a legal letter, instructed a legal team to demand that the government and Eskom stop cutting the country’s power, as well as compensation for the catastrophic damage caused by rolling blackouts. If it failed to do so, they would meet in court.  

Read in Daily Maverick: “Gatvol citizens threaten Eskom and government with legal action, demand stop to rolling blackouts” 

Steenhuisen echoed similar sentiments and said his party not only rejected the tariff hike, but also Stage 6 blackouts and the government’s poor response to “the biggest crisis our country has faced in three decades of our democracy”.  

In its papers, the DA seeks to interdict the implementation of the tariff hike pending the following relief:  

• To have Nersa’s decision of 12 January 2023 declared inconsistent with the Constitution, and to have it declared invalid and set aside;
• To have the ongoing and repeated decisions to implement load shedding declared inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore invalid, and for these decisions to be set aside. These include the disastrous load reduction;
• To have the government’s response to the energy crisis declared inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid; and
• Regarding the government’s response to the crisis, to have it declared as having having failed to respect, protect and fulfil the rights contained in the Bill of Rights, thereby limiting the rights of citizens to human dignity, the right to life, the right to an environment that is not harmful to health and well-being, the rights of access to healthcare services, the right to have access to sufficient water, the right to basic education and the right to access courts.

Steenhuisen said they would also ask that the court direct the government to file, within 30 days, a comprehensive and measurable plan, including short-term, mid-term and long-term steps, to avert this energy crisis.  

Residents talk on the main street of  Masiphumelele in Cape Town, with vehicle lights the only illumination during rolling blackouts on 18 March 2019. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Nic Bothma)

“It has become abundantly clear that this government will not act in the interests of the citizens of this country, including protecting them from blackouts… unless they are compelled by a court of law to do so.”    

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In a hybrid media briefing on the President’s public programme, presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Cyril Ramaphosa was engaged in critical meetings aimed at “urgent measures that can be undertaken in order to mitigate against the impact of load shedding”.  

Quizzed on the President’s view on the tariff hike, Magwenya said Ramaphosa was aware, from a consumer perspective, of the pain of having to pay more for power that is intermittent in its availability.   

Read in Daily Maverick: “Eskom gets tariff hike while Ramaphosa ‘deeply regrets’ Stage 6 rolling blackouts” 

Ramaphosa, who was scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos, cancelled the trip so he could remain in the country to deal with the electricity crisis.  

The country was plunged into darkness on 11 January after Eskom announced the implementation of Stage 6 blackouts “continually until further notice” due to severe capacity constraints.  

Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the utility would reduce this to stages 4 and 5 from Tuesday.

In addition to the legal bid, Steenhuisen said the DA would forge ahead with its anti-load shedding march to the ruling party’s headquarters in Johannesburg, Luthuli House. 

People walk home in complete darkness during a blackout in Meadowlands, Soweto, on 9 March 2022. (Photo: Felix Dlangamandla / Daily Maverick)

“It is clear that our president is unwilling and unprepared to catch up to the corrupt and inept in his own party who are holding us back from putting power into our energy grid. It is not good enough to simply sit back now and expect this government that has made hollow promises since 2007, to address this crisis, to do anything concrete about it,” he added,  

“We have a president who does a lot, but he does very little. And that is why we are now calling on all South Africans to unite on this key issue, to stand up and show this government that we are not prepared to pay the premium for their corruption, their maladministration and their poor policy choices.” DM