MEC Madoda Sambatha says Eskom is load-shedding essential services, including hospitals and clinics. He says this is despite a letter sent from the province to the Eskom official making a plea to exempt such institutions from load-shedding. Sambatha says Eskom must simply be told to stop cutting power to these institutions because it is difficult to comprehend why the province is not being included in the list with other provinces.

“As the MEC for Health in the North West, I find it very difficult to accept that there is not even one hospital from the North West on Eskom's list of hospitals to be exempted from load-shedding. Yet, the North West Department of Health submitted its list like all other provinces. In fact, at one time the Rob Ferreira Hospital in Mpumalanga was referred to be under North West, and when I received that I sent a message to the Minister of Health, Joe Phaahla. The Director-General (DG) of Health then corrected it and still insisted that a North West Hospital must be included. It’s surprising that we see a list circulating in the public, that only excludes the North West. We want to make it very clear that we will reject any attempt by Eskom not to include the North West on the list of hospitals not to be load-shedded, in actual fact, our view as the North West - and my view as the MEC - is that Eskom must simply be told to stop load-shedding the essential services. Otherwise, why are services declared as essential services if they can’t get electricity. Eskom must stop load-shedding the essential services.”

Last week, the minister of Public Enterprises, Pravin Gordhan, announced a new board for the power utility following a backlash from opposition parties and the public to fire the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO), André de Ruyter, and the board.

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Sambatha says the National Department of Health has at the end of September engaged Eskom to consider exempting key hospitals in the country from load-shedding, as part of mitigating the impact of the energy crisis. The request from the National Department was for provinces to submit the lists of hospitals to be considered for exemption, which the North West Province has submitted. “However, the list of hospitals that have just been released has not even a single hospital from the North West Province. When reacting to the list, MEC Madoda Sambatha has raised a concern that there seems to be no appreciation of health as an essential service. 

The MEC has made a follow-up request, asking the Minister to immediately intervene as the North West Province can’t be treated as if it is not part of South Africa. The North West Province's hospitals will be severely affected should the load-shedding persist. At the moment, some services get interrupted and patients are beginning to complain due to the number of times they have to wait for electricity to return.

"If the North West Province is not included by next week, based on its submission, we will be left with no other option but to organise a provincial march targeting Eskom and demand that the province be included in the lists of hospitals that are exempt from load-shedding," Sambatha adds.

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