DA initiates legal action against Eskom’s refusal to restore electricity supply to Lichtenburg
13 August 2023
The DA in North West has instructed its legal counsel to initiate an urgent High Court application against Eskom for its unethical decision refusing to restore electricity supply to affected areas in Lichtenburg.
Eskom is acting in contempt of court, since a 2017 High Court judgement ordered that the entity may not suspend electricity supply unless it is for maintenance or repair purposes. A position supported by a Constitutional Court judgement last year.
Lichtenburg residents and businesses have been without electricity supply for 18 days now after a pylon fell over on 27 July 2023 and a transformer was vandalised.
Eskom has replaced the transformer but is now abusing the situation at the expense of residents who have suffered financial losses and endured the inconvenience of this sustained blackout in a bid to recover money from the Ditsobotla Local Municipality’s R1 billion unpaid bulk electricity debt.
Eskom is now effectively denying residents their constitutional right to enjoy access to electricity because of its own failures to pursue legal and ethical debt recovery avenues that would not further inconvenience paying residents and businesses.
The situation in Lichtenburg can best be described as oppressive.
This entire situation shows that wherever the ANC is in charge, people suffer. Eskom is under the management of the ANC in national government, yet it is in dispute with an ANC-governed municipality.
The common thread running through the misery people continue to endure is the ANC. It is unnecessary because people can vote for a better government.
While our legal action seeks to immediately restore electricity supply in Lichtenburg, the only way to rebuild North West and rescue South Africa from the oppression of the ANC’s failures in government that continue to destroy lives and livelihoods is to vote DA in next year’s election.
Issued by Leon Basson, DA North West Provincial Leader, 13 August 2023
