Labour disputes hamper plan to unbundle Eskom

PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa's plan to unbundle Eskom has run into a hurdle amid disputes between labour and the power utility as unions “appear to be against” the process, Public Enterprises acting director-general Jacky Molisane told MPs.

In a bid to address inadequate electricity transmission grids, Ramaphosa had, in his 2019 State of the Nation Address, and after appointing Professor Anton Eberhard to chair the Eskom sustainability task team, rekindled the 1998 energy policy on unbundling Eskom.

The plan was to split Eskom into three different entities: generation, transmission and distribution.

DA MP Bennedicta van Minnen, in parliamentary questions, asked Minister Pravin Gordhan what progress, since 2020, had been made with the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity in the bid to unbundle Eskom into three separate subsidiaries, and for the number of engagements between Eskom and labour on the matter.

Molisane, in comments approved by Gordhan, said: “(After) the announcement by the president to unbundle Eskom, (the utility) concluded restructuring consultative framework (RCF agreement) with NUM, Numsa and Solidarity on April 20, 2021.

“The framework also gave way to an RCF, whose purpose is to consult with all the representative trade unions, namely NUM, Numsa and Solidarity ... on how Eskom intends to deal with the transmission division’s employees during the separation.”

She said the first meeting was convened on May 25 in 2021, and 13 meetings have followed. “In principle, the trade unions appear to be against the unbundling,” Molisane said.

“To date, we have already had two disputes. At the last steering committee meeting held on February 9, 2023, the trade unions resolved to suspend the RCF and engage directly with the group executive human resources (GEHR), whom they consider as the custodian of this process.”

Molisane said in terms of the recognition and RCF agreements, the unions reserved the right to engage with the GEHR.

“Eskom will be prioritising such an engagement to determine the way forward,” she said.

“Both Eskom and the government will continue to engage the unions to provide both clarity and reassurances, where required.”

Speaking to the Cape Argus, NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said: “(Gordhan) is right. We don’t support that nonsense called unbundling.”

He said it was a precursor to Eskom’s privatisation that would “lead to retrenchments” and “won’t eradicate load shedding”.