Minister Phaahla seeking out alternative energy supply for the health sector

Health Minister Joe Phaahla has kickstarted a process to exempt health facilities from rolling blackouts.

Phaahla said on Monday he hoped the country’s unstable power supply would improve. But it has instead deteriorated to the extent where stage six power cuts were again implemented earlier this month.

The country is currently on stage three load shedding till 4 PM on Monday afternoon. Stage four kicks in from 4 PM until midnight.

Last week national health department officials met with their provincial counterparts to assess the impact of load shedding on individual health care facilities.

Spokesperson Foster Mohale said Phaahla met with, amongst others, the minister of Public Enterprises, Eskom, and municipalities on the specific processes that should be followed in order to exempt health facilities from load shedding.

“Minister Phaahla has been working on alternative additional sources over and above the generators, which are not meant for prolonged outages, to seek additional supply of power to be considered for installation in the health facilities in order to compliment the generators as part of [the] energy mix,” he said.

Phaahla is set to give a comprehensive report on the impact of load shedding on public health facilities on Friday.

Meanwhile, unit two at Koeberg nuclear power station has been brought back online and is producing at full capacity.

-EWN

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