The seaside town of Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape has been exempt from load shedding for a week as it hosts a workshop on labour policy and international relations with officials from the BRICS group of countries, says energy expert Chris Yelland from EE Business Intelligence.<\/p>\n
The town is home to roughly 26,000 people and is now the temporary residence for political representatives from the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa alliance.<\/p>\n
Yelland said that the town exemption was requested by the Department of Labour and granted by Eskom\u2019s head office despite having adequate standby power facilities at the venue.<\/p>\n
He said this is the clearest indication yet of growing political interference in the work of the utility\u2019s System Operator, whose task is to keep the national power grid stable in the face of the country\u2019s deepening electricity crisis.<\/p>\n
“The workshop for about 200 mid-level government officials \u2013 mainly from South Africa \u2013 is being held from Sunday, 7 May to Saturday, 13 May 2023, at the Royal St. Andrews Hotel, Spa and Conference Centre in Port Alfred.”<\/p>\n
“As is common in South Africa these days, the venue is well equipped for power cuts with solar PV, battery storage and standby diesel generators.”<\/p>\n
According to Yelland, the request for the whole town to be exempt from national rolling blackouts was put forward by Sipho Ndebele, the acting deputy director-general for labour policy and international relations at the Department of Labour.<\/p>\n
The following process was undertaken by authorities to exempt the town from load shedding:<\/p>\n
Yelland said that bureaucratic delays meant that the load shedding of Port Alfred only stopped on the afternoon of Monday, 9 May 2023.<\/p>\n
In speaking with a senior executive at Eskom National Control – the organisation responsible for coordinating load shedding across the country – Yelland reported that the executive was unaware of the arrangement and believed it to be a hoax.<\/p>\n
“Eskom cannot, by law, exempt anyone from load shedding. Neither can any municipality or other electricity provider. It is a license (NRS) requirement that (load shedding) be done equitably and aligns with the Electricity Regulation Act. I strongly doubt any authority would risk their license,\u201d said the executive.<\/p>\n
The System Operator at Eskom National Control is allowed to make exemptions from load shedding at national key points and events of national importance.<\/p>\n
However, Yelland said this workshop can not be considered of national importance since the system operator had no prior knowledge of it.<\/p>\n
Not the first time<\/strong><\/p>\n EE Business Intelligence said that this is not the first time political interference has led to load shedding exemptions.<\/p>\n In December 2022, the ANC elective conference was exempted due to political pressure. City Power, the electricity distributor for the City of Johannesburg, exempted the NASREC Expo Centre \u2013 the venue close to Soweto \u2013 from load shedding, despite NASREC having the necessary diesel standby generators.<\/p>\n “The political pressure to exempt the ANC elective conference from load shedding was a clear abuse, likely motivated under the guise of national security to avoid the cost to the party of hiring NASREC\u2019s standby generators and the associated cost of diesel,” said the group.<\/p>\n
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