OPINIONISTA: Is suing to secure a reliable electricity supply legally viable or effective? It’s a complicated human rights issue

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What options are available to wannabe litigants eager to assert what they regard as their right to a reliable supply of electricity? The Bill of Rights in South Africa contains many guaranteed rights, which cannot easily be delivered without a reliable ...

In his review of the recent decision of the Constitutional Court concerning a resolution by Eskom to cut off the electricity supply of municipalities that were in default of payment,“The constitutional scheme was to place the primary obligation on the relevant municipality to provide its residents with electricity for which the latter had paid. The collapse of local government lies at the heart of this case.

What options are available to wannabe litigants eager to assert what they regard as their right to a reliable supply of electricity? The state is obliged to respect, protect, promote and fulfil all the rights in the Bill of Rights. That obligation ought to be attended to diligently and without delay. When human rights are threatened or violated, it is possible to sue to vindicate them under the “Enforcement of Rights” provisions of the Bill of Rights, as contained in section 38 of the Constitution. A claimant who alleges that a right in the Bill of Rights has been infringed or threatened may seek appropriate relief in court, such relief may include a declaration of rights.

The court decided that the rail authorities were liable and issued a declaratory order to that effect. This necessitated the employment of many more security guards by them, not the recruitment of additional police to make up for the assimilation of the railway police into the SA police force in the dying days of apartheid.is a possible form of relief.

The reference by Professor Balthazar to “palliative care” is salutary. He is in effect saying that Eskom is in its death throes and that anything it is able to do at this late stage is to be regarded as palliative in the medical sense.The death of Eskom does not relieve the state of its obligation to respect and protect human rights guaranteed to all. Whether that obligation can be delivered on without Eskom remains to be seen.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

 

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