Eskom strike means stage 6 power cuts

No relief soon from worst load-shedding in two years Intimidation of non-strikers reported

After several days of illegal strikes by Eskom workers due to wage negotiations gone awry, and with diesel reserves at its emergency power plants running low, the state-owned power utility announced on Tuesday that it had to implement stage 6 load-shedding for the first time since 2019.

Despite some progress being made in the wage negotiations, with Eskom tabling a new offer to unions on Tuesday afternoon, the possibility of more power cuts could not be ruled out, while work got under way to resume maintenance that was not carried out during the strike.

Due to the illegal industrial action, up to 90% of staff at many power stations could not perform their duties while subjected to intimidation from striking workers, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said at a news conference.

Gordhan said that extensive negotiations on Tuesday yielded “a wage agreement” between unions and Eskom, and that part of the deal was for workers to return to their posts on Wednesday — a statement that was in conflict with the two main unions at the power utility.

In a joint statement the unions representing most of Eskom’s workforce, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA and National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), said that a new wage offer from Eskom would be tabled at the Central Bargaining Forum (CBF) on Friday.

“There is no agreement reached with Eskom. We can confirm there is an offer on the table that will be presented to our members, but this offer has not yet been accepted. We still need to consult with our members,” said NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu.

He declined to disclose the details of the new wage offer.

Unions have been asking for a one-year pay rise of 12%-15%, which is miles away from Eskom’s earlier offer for a oneyear pay hike deal for increases of 5.3%‚ 4.5% and 4% for its 28‚374 employees in the bargaining unit who are spread across different salary scales.

On Tuesday morning, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter said that

even if an agreement could be reached with unions within the next few days, the effects of the strike will be felt for some time.

“With the challenge we have now we are diverting staff to keep essential services running. If the strike is resolved we will have [a] significant backlog in maintenance that will create a prolonged risk of load-shedding,” he said.

Civil rights organisation AfriForum said it was taking legal action against the strikers. AfriForum said it had instructed its legal team to bring an urgent application to the high court in Pretoria “to compel law enforcers to take action against striking Eskom employees who are intimidating and harassing their colleagues”.

The organisation said this step was made necessary because Eskom had failed to enforce a court order on Friday declaring the strike illegal.

Striking workers blocked access roads to power stations, intimidated workers wanting to report for their shifts, and torched vehicles.

De Ruyter said that at Lethabo power station four homes of plant operators had been attacked with petrol bombs, creating an “atmosphere of fear where people are very scared for their personal possessions, their personal security and that of their families”.

Eskom said it had managed to return three of the 10 units that broke down on Monday to service, but this was “still insufficient to stave off the implementation of stage 6 load-shedding”.

To make up for a shortfall in generation capacity and avoid resorting to higher stages of load-shedding, Eskom had been consuming considerable quantities of diesel over the past number of days, burning about 2-million litres of diesel a day at both of its open-cycle gas turbines, Ankerlig and Gourikwa, which have a combined generation capacity of 2,000MW.

“For June, we have already consumed 85-million litres of diesel,” said De Ruyter during an emergency media briefing.

“Diesel reserves are depleting at an alarming rate, especially at Ankerlig, where diesel is replenished via road,” said Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer. He said Eskom lacks sufficient volumes of diesel in stock offsite and a vessel due to deliver fuel will arrive only at the weekend.

The rand, which traded at R15.80/$ earlier in the day, weakened to above the R16/$ after Eskom announced plans to escalate outages.

“The consequences for the economy from load-shedding are clear and the market is expressing it,” said James Turp, head of fixed income at Absa.