The recent judgment handed down by the North Gauteng High Court that all hospitals, clinics, schools and police stations should be exempt from loadshedding will have major cost implications, according to Western Cape Premier Alan Winde.

In a statement, Winde said he understood the rationale of the judgment, in trying to keep basic services going during loadshedding, but the practicality of it was "unfortunately impossible".

"You would need to build dedicated feeders for every school, police station and hospital, which would be very costly, or take those networks out of the schedules and increase loadshedding for the remaining areas.

"Providing these installations with standby generators would also be very expensive, and I'm not sure who is expected to pay for this, given that these installations are in both Eskom and municipal-supplied areas," he said.

Winde said the provincial government, however, agreed with the court that electricity blackouts have an impact on the constitutional rights of South Africans.

Last week, Judge Norman Davis ordered Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan to "take all reasonable steps" within 60 days to ensure that public health establishments, state schools and the South African Police Service are not affected by loadshedding.

The United Democratic Movement, Inkatha Freedom Party, Action SA, the National Union of Metalworkers and other organisations had launched a legal bid to spare hospitals and clinics, public schools and police stations from loadshedding. 

Gordhan is to appeal the court ruling, as it will place "undue risk" on the country's grid, News24 reported

"The question remains, though: who will pay for the massive expansion of grid capacity and emergency measures desperately needed to ensure critical services are safeguarded from load shedding?" Winde asked.

The premier added that the cost implications were significant.

"Funds should be coming from the national government to provinces and municipalities to support this investment," he said.