Magister Philosophiae - MPhil (Law)

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Browsing by Subject "Load Shedding"

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    Access to electricity within the South African Legal and Constitutional Context: lessons to be learnt from the Netherlands
    (University of the Western Cape, 2025) Boer, Ketra Rae
    The provision of electricity is essential for the promotion of healthcare, employment, food production and educational outcomes. The right to access electricity forms the basis of quality to life and various other rights. The ability of people to receive education, communication between people and the process of preparing food is impacted by access to electricity. 1 South Africa implemented load shedding to maintain the integrity of the electric grid and prevent further grid failure.2 South Africa has, however, coined the term ‘load shedding’ and defined it as ‘planned rolling blackouts based on a rotating schedule in a period where short supply threatens the integrity of the grid.’3 This implementation was the consequence of the failure to build new power stations which would keep up the economic growth and phase out older power plants.4 However the frequency of this load shedding has led to the current electricity crisis in South Africa. The frequency of load shedding has become a highly political and ideological topic due to its impact on various sectors of the economy.5 Load shedding is defined as the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part of a power-distributing system, generally to prevent failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system.6 There have been various factors which has heightened the discussion around the electricity crisis in South Africa. Politics and corruption have been noted as a big issue in the power sector of other African countries and now South Africa has also become one of these countries.