In this note, we examine access to electricity as a right in South African law. We also consider whether deprivations, interferences and disruptions of electricity supply are justifiable limitations of the right. While recent court decisions view access to electricity as a supplement to the Bill of Rights, judicial treatment of electricity as a right precedes the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Prior to the adoption of the Constitution, the courts treated access to electricity as a common law right in the context of servitudes and personal and contractual rights. Under the Constitution, the right to access to electricity flows from the constitutional and statutory obligations of Eskom, South Africa's power utility, to provide reliable electricity supply and to ensure just administrative action when taking actions that result in the deprivation of electricity. From a Bill of Rights perspective, the cases show that the right to electricity, albeit not expressed in the text of the Constitution, is a condition for the exercise of other rights, including the rights to human dignity and access to adequate housing, water and health care. We conclude that the deprivation of electricity through loadshedding and other interruptions by Eskom, landlords and body corporates are violations of the right to access to electricity. These violations could be remedied through spoliation and constitutional remedies.
In this note, we examine access to electricity as a right in South African law. We also consider whether deprivations, interferences and disruptions of electricity supply are justifiable limitations of the right. While recent court decisions view access to electricity as a supplement to the Bill of Rights, judicial treatment of electricity as a right precedes the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Prior to the adoption of the Constitution, the courts treated access to electricity as a common law right in the context of servitudes and personal and contractual rights. Under the Constitution, the right to access to electricity flows from the constitutional and statutory obligations of Eskom, South Africa's power utility, to provide reliable electricity supply and to ensure just administrative action when taking actions that result in the deprivation of electricity. From a Bill of Rights perspective, the cases show that the right to electricity, albeit not expressed in the text of the Constitution, is a condition for the exercise of other rights, including the rights to human dignity and access to adequate housing, water and health care. We conclude that the deprivation of electricity through loadshedding and other interruptions by Eskom, landlords and body corporates are violations of the right to access to electricity. These violations could be remedied through spoliation and constitutional remedies.
The consequences of climate change are not only disproportionately felt by the most vulnerable and poorest populations, there are also disparities along gender lines. The connections between climate change, gender equality and women’s rights are not only complicated but also multidimensional. In contrast, most existing studies on gender and climate change action offer a narrow conception of what gender equality and women’s rights mean in the context of climate change action. Considering these thorny linkages between climate change, gender equality and women’s rights in Africa, this article examines the intersection between gender equality, women’s rights and climate change action by focusing on African Union law and the climate change legislative and policy responses from Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The article adopts a doctrinal method and two analytical approaches – the human rights-based approach and insights from feminist approach to law – to argue that since human-rights law places the protection and fulfilment of fundamental human rights and group interests at its core, its legal threshold demands that all actions which can have an impact on human rights, including climate change responses, are bound by its rules. The article argues that gender equality and women’s rights are guaranteed in international and regional law in Africa and therefore provide a legal basis for the integration of gender equality and the protection of women’s rights in national climate change action.
This note considers the judgment in City of Cape Town v National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) and Minister of Energy (unreported case number 51765/17 of 11 August 2020), which attracted much attention for its challenge of the constitutionality of section 34 of the Electricity Regulation Act, 4 of 2006. Although the question of constitutionality was not discussed in the judgment, it is argued that this was an oversight and a missed opportunity to unpack the role of municipalities in the provision of sustainable electricity services. Further, the note considers the challenges of intergovernmental relations in co-operative government (from a conceptual and practical perspective) and concludes that this case highlights the importance of good relations between organs of State, especially where contentious but important issues have arisen.
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