President’s Pretoria home not affected by load-shedding

The president’s home in Bryntirion as well as the Union Buildings are not affected by load-shedding, the Tshwane metro has confirmed.

Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said according to the electricity national standard, the Union Buildings is exempted from load-shedding.

“The Bryntirion Estate [itself] is not exempted from load-shedding, but it, together with other properties around the Union Buildings, benefit by default as they are supplied by the same substation.”

The estate incorporates 28 properties, including Mahlamba Ndlopfu, the official Pretoria home of the President Cyril Ramaphosa, 15 tennis courts, a 9-hole presidential golf course and a helicopter landing area.

Recently the DA had raised concerns over some buildings being exempted when even local hospitals were not.

DA member Ghaleb Cachalia said the party found it morally wrong for the “architects of the ongoing load-shedding crisis” to have an uninterrupted power supply while hospitals faced load-shedding.

“The DA finds it scandalous that the estate, a small suburb in Pretoria where the official residences of Ramaphosa’s cabinet are located, is exempt from load-shedding while hospitals are not.

“According to the national standard regulating load-shedding (NRS 048-9:2019), hospitals are some of the national key points that are listed under institutions that are scheduled for load-shedding.”

Cachalia said the DA was of the strong view that hospitals needed to be exempt from load-shedding.

“The DA will write to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa calling for an immediate review of the NRS regulations. Hospitals should be exempt from load-shedding as a matter of urgency and the pampered cabinet’s Bryntirion Estate should be placed on load-shedding schedules just as everyone else.”

DA member Samantha Graham-Maré called on the government to prioritise helping vulnerable communities.

“While hospitals, businesses and ordinary South African households have to struggle in the dark, the same fate does not befall the ministers responsible for this catastrophe.

“Had the government truly cared about poor and vulnerable South Africans, they would have ensured that all hospitals and clinics had power during rolling blackouts, that crime hotspots were not without lights when load-shedding struck and that small businesses – critical to a recovering economy – keep operating.”

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