COSATU condemns City's continued attempts to insulate wealthy areas from load shedding

2 February 2015

The City of Cape Town is responsible for shifting the load shedding burden to the poorer areas, with smoke and mirrors. After COSATU had exposed that the City had been implementing load shedding in poorer areas more than they were in the wealthier areas, the City decided to draft a new load shedding schedule. This load shedding schedule was meant to distribute the load shedding more evenly between the richer and poorer areas. Upon examination of the details it would appear as if the City is still continuing with their unfair load schedule.

The City uses a sneaky way to hide the wealthy areas in their big blocks of 80 megawatts, which are going to see load shedding. However, when the particular block is meant to load shed, they are only obligated to cut 60 mega watts, instead of the 80 mega watts they had scheduled, so that the 20 watts not cut, covers the wealthy areas.

COSATU will be calling on the regulator to investigate the cuts that the City of Cape Town has put in place, as it is clearly discriminatory. The City has purposely put in the flexibility, so they can manipulate the system to exclude wealthy areas from load shedding.

The City schedule also does not take into account the areas where there is a greater socio economic impact when the Electricity is cut. We demand that the City uses the Eskom idea of Red Areas that are excluded from cuts, due to the fact that crime levels escalate in these areas, when there are power cuts.

The City must develop a schedule that takes account of both equity and flexibility to manage demand, in a manner that defends jobs. This schedule must be consulted on with all of the stakeholders, so that the best balance is found. COSATU will be monitoring the load shedding schedule of the City of Cape Town very closely, to expose additional areas of discrimination against poorer communities.

Statement issued by Tony Ehrenreich, COSATU Western Cape Provincial Secretary, February 2 2015

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