Federation slams Eskom’s ‘war on workers’

Eskom says there are no plans to privatise the public power utility and it is only calling for the liberalisation of the market for more competition within the power sector.

The South African Trade Unions Federation (Saftu) has accused the power utility of moving towards privatisation after the utility’s announcement to boost financial performance by a zero percent increase in wages, the cutting of 10 000 jobs and the “privatisation of electricity generation to independent power producers”.

Saftu’s acting spokesperson, Patrick Craven said, “Saftu says no … [and] condemns Eskom’s war on its workers. Workers must not pay the price for Eskom’s mismanagement and corruption.

“Electricity generation is a vital public service, supplying power to the people, in industry, schools, hospitals and homes.

“Its mandate has to be to provide that service as efficiently and cheaply as possible and with the minimum damage to the environment.

“This will be impossible if it is owned and run as a business by private commercial companies.”

Craven added “workers should not have to pay the price for their bosses’ irresponsibility by losing their jobs in mines and power stations as a result of handing over power generation to IPP companies which were only interested in the bottom line.”

However, Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe said the utility currently “does not have cash” and that it would be “irresponsible” for it to make increases in wages and not cut down on its labour costs.