Two weeks of darkness
Eskom says loadshedding will happen daily between 5pm and 7pm Workers blame bloated management structure for the crisis
South Africans can brace themselves for two more weeks of electricity blackouts as Eskom recovers following last week’s interruptions.
This comes after the power utility implemented the muchdreaded loadshedding from Thursday night following two days of protests by employees at their power stations over the utility’s zero-percent stance on salary increases.
Yesterday, the spokesman for Eskom, Khulu Phasiwe, said they were “working extremely hard to recover” as soon as possible.
“The recovery programme is expected to last between one and two weeks, depending on the time taken to restore supplies of coal and essential materials, undertake clean-up operations, undertake essential repairs and restart the units,” Phasiwe said.
He said there was “a high probability of loadshedding in the coming week, particularly between 5pm and 7pm daily” when energy demands were higher.
He said output from some power stations was negatively impacted due to “the stoppage of trucks supplying coal and inability to undertake essential maintenance on the power stations” when required.
On Saturday the Hendrina power station, one of the most negatively affected, had all its 10 power generating units down after protesting workers shut it down on Wednesday and Thursday.
This came at a time when temperatures were significantly dropping due to South Africa’s winter season, and football lovers may now have to make alternative means in order not to miss some of the 2018 World Cup matches.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan yesterday said the Eskom board would meet today to discuss the new offer for employees.
“The board is meeting tomorrow [today] and the Eskom board will discuss what they can put on the table,” Gordhan said.
He said last week’s disruptions were now affecting the entire country as Eskom tries to put electricity production back at full capacity.
Hellen Diatile, the National Union of Mineworkers’ chief negotiator at Eskom, said their members were still at work, however, they anticipated that salary increase negotiations would resume soon.
“As workers can’t accept that we won’t get bonuses or salary increases... it looks like there’s enough money for the CEO and the board but not for workers,” Diatile said.
She said Eskom had dragged its feet on recovering the billions of rand owed to it by defaulting municipalities across the country.
Diatile said workers on the ground had done their job by ensuring that electricity was produced and can’t be punished for mismanagement and failures to collect money owed to the power utility.
National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s Phakamile Hlubi said the cash-strapped Eskom was engaging in what she termed a “disastrous” deal with independent power producers, from whom it would have to procure power at a higher rate.