New load-shedding threat as Eskom pay talks hit impasse
An impasse in wage talks has for the second time in 2018 threatened the national power supply amid reports of intimidation, sabotage and obstruction of access at power stations.
Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe warned South Africans on Monday afternoon to plan for load-shedding. Coal trucking at Duvha and Majuba power stations had halted because of “acts of intimidation”, he said.
A unit was offline at both Arnot and Koeberg, while Matla power station was worst hit with two units offline and a conveyor belt cut in what Eskom management believed to be an act of sabotage. The police had been mobilised, Eskom said.
Eskom employees embarked on industrial action at power stations on Monday in response to the utility’s refusal to include performance bonuses in a three-year wage offer.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said union members on the ground reported protests had been peaceful. “It’s their [Eskom’s] same lies and propaganda every time. They want sympathy from the public by tarnishing the image of our members.”
A strike in June over a first wage increase offer of 0% also culminated in alleged sabotage and load-shedding. The offers have since been improved. Two options are on the table. The first is a 7% annual increase for three years and includes a housing allowance dependent on inflation. The other option is a 7.5% increase in 2018 and 7% in 2019 and 2020, with no housing allowance. The workers are yet to respond to these offers.
Solidarity deputy general secretary Deon Reyneke said the union had received reports of disruptions at Kendal, Duvha, Arnot, Matla and Lethabo power stations. “They [protestors] prevented people from going in.
“At Arnot, employees who were inside, they forced them out,” he said.
Late on Monday afternoon, Reyneke said he had received no report of a conveyor belt cut at Matla, but had been notified that units four and five at Arnot were down “due to no coal”.
Solidarity members are not part of the protest action as the union had already indicated to Eskom it was within its mandate to accept the current offer on the table, Reyneke said.
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA, the other union deadlocked in the wage talks, said it would not comment unless Eskom could prove its members were involved.
Eskom said the industrial action followed Eskom and the trade unions “not finding each other” at the Central Bargaining Forum last week when the parties deliberated on wages and a demand for bonuses.
The cash-strapped utility has refused to offer bonuses. Mammburu said NUM members had “performed exceptionally well and should be paid the bonus that is due to them”.
Reyneke said he worried that the other two unions were pushing Eskom in the direction of job cuts by insisting it give bonuses it could not afford.
Eskom said the utility was an essential service provider and so employees were prohibited from participating in any form of industrial action. Talks are due to continue on Friday.