Load shedding inquiry looms

2008-01-16 14:41

Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - The public protector is considering whether or not to mount an investigation into the load shedding currently being experienced by South Africans, which, he says "is having a devastating effect ... on service delivery by government, is causing serious prejudice to the private sector and negatively affects the lives of many of the people."

In a letter to the chief executive of Eskom, Jacob Maroga, the public protector, Lawrence Mushwana, on Wednesday said that he is mandated to investigate on his own initiative or on receipt of a complaint, conduct by public entities that causes unlawful or improper prejudice to any person.

He poses a series of questions to the Eskom chief to help him decide whether to proceed.

He asks Maroga to explain the reasons for the load shedding, the measures that were put in place by Eskom to prevent what is causing the load shedding and the expected duration of the load shedding practice.

He also asks for detailed information "as a matter of urgency" on steps that have been taken by Eskom to address the reasons for the load shedding and the time frames within which the problems will be resolved.

Interestingly the protector also asks what steps Eskom intend taking to compensate those that have suffered damages and/or inconvenience as a result of the load shedding the steps taken by Eskom to ensure that emergency centres, such as hospitals and police stations are not affected by the load shedding, and what is being done to prevent load shedding from causing serious traffic accidents as a result of traffic lights not working.

Mushwana is also interested to know about what is being done to alert the public to the load shedding problems.

Asking for any additional material the Eskom chief might deem important, the protector requests an answer at his "earliest convenience".

- I-Net Bridge (News24)