WE CAN’T RELY ON GOVERNMENT TO SORT OUT LOAD SHEDDING
EVERY year, Jews around the world at this time read about the plagues that were beset upon the oppressors when they were slaves.
Those plagues varied from locusts to floods to darkness and more.
Here in South Africa, we have not been short of plagues over the past few years. Only recently, we saw an outbreak of locusts and floods. Both of these plagues have caused enormous damage and have destroyed economic activity and even life. We have to do as much as we can to try and avoid the destruction when these incidents are repeated.
Today, I want to look at the plague of darkness. Our troubles from Eskom have been with us regularly for probably the greater part of a decade. This plague of darkness is entirely caused by incompetence, theft, bad planning and useless governance. The curse of darkness could easily have been avoided, and yet very little is being done to avoid it in the future. Dare I say the only province that is doing its utmost to build up alternative energy sources is the Western Province.
Despite all sorts of regulatory burdens, there has been a very strong move from the City of Cape Town and the Western Province to ensure that within the next few years, we will be able to sidestep our 100% reliance on Eskom.
This Eskom failure is vitally important when discussing one of the greatest plagues in South Africa. In my estimation, the curse of unemployment is the biggest issue facing us today and in the future.
We have just seen the latest research come out on the unemployment figures and the comparison between 2015 and 2020.
Various factors converge, causing the unemployment figures to rise in our country. The obvious factors such as the slowing down of the international economy and the international pandemic are unavoidable. However, factors such as our onerous labour legislation, horrific labour regulations and the coupling of small business to big business via bargaining councils are easily avoidable and could easily be reversed at no cost at all. For some reason or other, our government steadfastly refuses to do something about this despite our previous finance minister pointing out these issues.
Obviously other factors do come into play, such as the power outages we are experiencing right now and will be experiencing in the future. We have been told in no uncertain terms load shedding is job shedding.
Not only is the Employment and labour minister responsible for this enormous unemployment curse, but he must share that responsibility with his colleagues in Energy and, indeed, the entire governing party.
Now that we can see our government is incapable, or even worse, refuses to help with the situation, we must take matters into our own hands. It is now up to the trade unions and staff associations to approach employers to discuss management and protocols when handling outages at work.
Many employers have resorted to working half days or even closing a full day when they receive reports of load shedding. These closures mean that staff don’t earn during that time, and are forced to waste money by travelling to work and then told to go home.
After many discussions I’ve had with small businesses, I am receiving some good reports on how consultations and negotiations between management and staff have produced results. For instance, one small employer manages the outages by asking staff to come into work an hour or even two hours before their normal starting time so they can get in a full days work before the load shedding.
Another group of staff told me that after discussions with management, everyone was going to contribute a small amount of their salary to possibly purchase a generator. These discussions are ongoing and look positive. Another group have entered into discussions with the management to see if they could continue producing in partnership with another company in another area. This would mean when there is load shedding in one area, they can continue working in another area.
All these suggestions are innovative and can be applauded. Management needs to take their staff and their trade unions into their confidence as soon as possible. This load shedding is destined to be with us for many years to come, and our people are not only resilient but innovative. Let’s make this work as we cannot rely on government.