Cape Town — Coalition Readies Legal Action Against Govt Over Energy Crisis
A collection of several political parties and civil organisations including Build One South Africa, the United Democratic Movement, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa have filed papers at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria for an urgent hearing to be held regarding relief measures over persistent power cuts, News24 reports. The coalition also aims to have an electricity tariff hike of 18% recently granted by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to be scrapped and demands that President Cyril Ramaphosa and Department of Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan need to produce a plan within seven days that may lessen the impact of load shedding for the health, schooling, telecommunications, policing, and water sectors.
KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng Warned as Heatwave Sweeps Provinces
A heatwave sweeping the country is expected to arrive in the provinces of Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the South African Weather Service (SAWS) warned. This comes after an alert was issued over rising temperatures, Eyewitness News reports. Conditions are expected to be between 34 and 36 degrees Celsius with the possibility of reaching 40 degrees, forecaster Mbavhi Maliage warned. Emergency services have been placed on alert.
Main Dam for Nelson Mandela Bay Dries Up
The main dam supplying water to the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality has been shut down due to its critically low water level, according to eNCA. The metro – which has faced a prolonged drought – has had to resort to supplementing the area’s water supply with water from the Nooitgedacht Water Treatment scheme as all the metro’s dams are at a level of 14%.
