Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane was expected to lay charges of culpable homicide against the government on Monday following the death of a three-year-old child from Bromhof.
The child’s oxygen machine ran out of battery life as a result of loadshedding and the toddler took her last breath in the arms of her mother who was rushing her to the hospital on Thursday last week.
The toddler’s health condition was as a result of a viral infection which subjected her to difficulty in breathing and had to rely on a back-up oxygen cylinder.
Maimane, who planned to open a case at the Cape Town Central police station, said: “We urge [Electricity Minister Mr Kgosientsho] Ramokgopa to publicly commit to a plan as to how government will comply with a high court order to reinstate electricity supply to all public hospitals, schools and police stations during loadshedding within 60 days.”
Maimane added that the people responsible for failure to provide energy in the country must be held accountable.
Early in May, a high court in Pretoria ordered government to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to all government hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations.
This followed an application by the UDM and other political and civic organisations, which argued that government and Eskom have violated basic human rights by implementing power cuts that have knocked critical areas of the economy including health facilities.
The organisations’ application hinged on the provision of electricity to 85 police stations, 93 hospitals, and 23 000 schools badly affected by loadshedding.
Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan has since announced that he intends to challenge the court ruling.
In a statement a few days after the ruling, Gordhan said his department had serious concerns about the implications of the court ruling on the current efforts to stabilise the national grid and get the country out of loadshedding.
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