By Daanyaal Matthews

The Muslim Judicial Council has requested that the South African Government grant Muslims reprieve from loadshedding on the day of Eid. This request follows rising criticism across the nation in response to Eskom’s tendency to alleviate loadshedding entirely on certain public holidays that correspond with Christian religious celebrations such as over the Easter Weekend. The letter, written by Shaykh Irafaan Abrahams, President of the MJC, writes:

“In recent days, and rightly so, load shedding was suspended to accommodate South Africans celebrating their respective holy days. This in particular the relaxation of the load shedding schedule during the Christmas and Easter periods. The Muslim community of South Africa expects to spend this time of Eid unbridled by the implications so imposed by the impediment of load shedding.”

This letter has been strengthened by similar calls from The Gatesville Mosque Committee, with Executive Director, Mohammed Abdulla, writing to President Ramphosa and the Minister of Electricity:

“On behalf of the congregation of Masjidul-Quds (also known as the Gatesville Mosque) as well as on behalf of all Muslims we kindly urge you to consider a temporary reprieve of load shedding as we enter the festive days of Eid. You did so commendably over the Christmas period. This gesture will go far to bring the blessed month of Ramadhaan to a climax and particularly assist in the festive preparations.”

Speaking on Ramadaan AM, Daphne Mokwena, Operations and Maintenance Manager at Eskom, responded to questions about why loadshedding was redacted during these holiday periods by stating:

“The goal for Eskom is not to implement loadshedding at all, however, we will implement loadshedding when there really is a need to keep the grid stable. However, what we have experienced as well, especially during the long weekends, the two long weekends we had in March, what we saw was that demand as well, we don’t know if it’s because people have gone on holiday, our demand has dropped considerably. Obviously that demand led to us not to load shed because supply obviously improved, our generators also improved in terms of the breakdown, however the most important thing that we saw was demand went down.”

However, in response to the request from the MJC, Vincent Magwenya, Spokesperson for the President says: “The President does not regulate, nor is he operationally responsible for the management of load-shedding schedules. It is actually inappropriate to address such a request to the President.”

VOC has contacted the Minister of Electricity for a comment, however, as of the time of publication, no response has been received. The Muslim Judicial Council has reserved comment until the executive committee convenes and comes to a resolution.

Photo: GCIS