For Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Sane Dhlamini.

Making headlines: Nersa allows Eskom to claw back R13.3-billion in tariffs, Solidarity seeks legal advice to compel govt to place certain regions under level 1 and, Ramaphosa says South Africans have a right to approach courts during lockdown

 

Nersa allows Eskom to claw back R13.3-billion in tariffs

South African energy regulator Nersa has said it will allow Eskom to recover R13.3-billion from customers for electricity supplied in the 2018/19 financial year, lower than what the state-owned power utility had applied for.

Cash-strapped Eskom applied in August 2019 to Nersa to claw back R27.3-billion from electricity customers through power tariffs, saying it needed to cover costs incurred for the financial year 2018/19.

Eskom supplies more than 90% of South Africa's electricity but is struggling with high debts and faulty power stations.

 

Solidarity seeks legal advice to compel govt to place certain regions under level 1

Not-for-profit organisation Solidarity is consulting with lawyers to compel government to change the current national lockdown to a regional level during the coronavirus pandemic.

The movement argues that regions with high infection rates could be relaxed to level 1.

To date South Africa has reported 15 515 cases of Covid-19 with 264 deaths. The country has also reported 7 006 recoveries.

Solidarity says the current lockdown measures will not prevent the expected peak rate of infections, but will rather result in more people being unemployed.

 

Ramaphosa says South Africans have a right to approach courts during lockdown

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday stated that while government would prefer to avoid the need for any legal action against it, South Africans who are unhappy with government regulations guiding the national lockdown have a right to approach the courts for any form of relief they seek.

He said this was a normal tenet of a constitutional democracy and a perfectly acceptable practice in a country founded on the rule of law.

Ramaphosa explained that there had been, and would continue to be, criticism of the country’s national response to Covid-19, from the data modelling and projections, to the economic effects of the lockdown, to the regulations.

 

That’s a roundup of news making headlines today

For a news update each morning, register for Polity’s free daily newsletter