THE government appears to be preparing for life with load shedding despite a prolonged period of no rolling blackouts across the country, while localised power reductions started after last month’s elections.
New Eskom chief executive Dan Marokane said its generation performance had shown a steep change, with nearly 100 days of no load shedding and unplanned outages consistently below the winter planning assumptions that would trigger up to stage two power cuts.
Despite the power utility’s positive outlook, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development wants to buy 3 200 uninterrupted power supply (UPS) devices from original equipment manufacturers.
The sale will be conducted through the State Information Technology Agency’s transversal contract of procuring certain equipment and services over three years.
A few years ago, the department, responsible for the operations of the judiciary, championed legislation that established the Office of the Chief Justice, which is in charge of the country’s superior courts.
Superior courts include the Constitutional Court, Supreme Court of Appeal, high courts as well as specialised courts such as the Labour and Labour Appeal courts, the Land Claims Court, the Competition Appeal Court and the Electoral Court, which adjudicate various matters excluded from the high and lower courts’ jurisdiction.
The courts of law within the department’s jurisdiction are courts of records and their functions, which include recordings, are a basic requirement for the administration of justice.
”Without recording, a court of law cannot convene. There is a high demand of recording technology to remain in place given the current statistics of calls logged by users against the service,” the department said.
According to the department, load shedding was disrupting courts and service points activities as well as court recording technology (CRT) machines.
”Some courts have become dysfunctional with a majority of courts not able to operate countrywide and UPS systems will provide a reliable and continuous power source to critical equipment and systems, safeguarding against power disruptions and ensuring uninterrupted operations,” the department said.
The government believes that acquiring a UPS system for CRT offers numerous benefits, including enhanced equipment protection, improved business continuity, increased productivity and cost savings.
UPS systems will be distributed nationwide, with Gauteng receiving 543 units and the Northern Cape 199, while the national office in Tshwane gets 73, all depending on classes.
In its latest appraisal, Eskom announced achieving significant year-on-year reduction in the usage of diesel through open-cycle gas turbines, which translated to over R4 billion in savings in the 2024/25 financial year.
The power utility has, however, warned that as the demand for electricity rises and temperatures fall with the onset of winter, the issue of network overloading has resurfaced in some areas due to electricity theft, encompassing a wide range of activities including illegal connections, network equipment theft, vandalism, meter bypasses, tampering, unauthorised network operations, and purchasing electricity from illegal vendors.
Eskom said: ”To prevent risk to life and network overloading, which may result in load reduction, Eskom urges customers to reduce their consumption while load shedding is suspended.“
Customers should ensure that electricity was legally connected and purchased from authorised vendors and report any illegal activities to the relevant authorities.
”As demand for electricity rises and temperatures fall with the onset of winter, the issue of network overloading has resurfaced in some areas due to electricity theft,” said Eskom.
Meanwhile, Eskom has secured a Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, order to force the City of Johannesburg to pay its debt of R1.1 billion.
Acting Judge Ngwako Maenetje ordered the municipality to pay almost R1.1bn to the power utility.
The City of Johannesburg and City Power are appealing the ruling and hit back, stating that Eskom currently owed the entity R3.4bn.