The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) in KwaZulu-Natal has warned that teaching and learning could come to a standstill if Eskom does not follow through with exempting public schools from rolling blackouts.
The High Court in Pretoria last week ruled that schools, hospitals and police stations should be exempted from load shedding.
The court found that rolling blackouts were an infringement of constitutional rights and gave the Public Enterprises Minister 60 days in which to ensure that reasonable steps are taken to implement the exemption.
Naptosa CEO in KwaZulu-Natal, Thirona Moodley says, “We are concerned in terms of the implementation of this court ruling considering that the Minister of public enterprises has 60 days to ensure uninterrupted electricity at schools, public health institutions and the police stations. So, we are going to wait in bated breath to see how this unfolds. But if this unfolds according to plan. It is about time there is some time of intervention from higher authority to stand up for the children in public schools.”
PODCAST | Naptosa on exempting schools from load shedding:
‘Not practical’
Meanwhile, energy expert says exempting all schools, hospitals and police stations from rolling blackouts is simply not practical.
Kgose Moleshe says it will be almost impossible to implement the court judgment
“It is not practical at all because if you have schools, hospitals – they are all embedded within the communities and what it will do in any case, if you were to do that, it could lead to more intense load shedding and also the potential importing of diesel generators, so you might as well use that money to reduce load shedding.”
She elaborates in the video below:
