South African power outages enter second day as utility workers protest
Standoff is key test for President Ramaphosa’s resolve to cut costs at state companies
South Africa suffered power outages for a second day on Friday as workers protested over wages at national electricity provider Eskom, in a test of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s resolve to cut costs at struggling state companies.
Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said late on Friday Eskom and the unions had agreed to resume talks immediately on conditions that include Eskom makes a pay increase offer.
“The parties have agreed that the current disruptions at Eskom that resulted in loadshedding since yesterday are not beneficial to either party nor the country and the economy,” Gordhan said in a statement.
Eskom, which produces more than 90 per cent of South Africa’s power, said it would implement outages throughout the day because of an “illegal protest action” by some of its employees.
The rand currency weakened after Eskom announced the outages and said there was a high risk of further disruptions over the weekend.
Cutting costs at troubled state entities such as Eskom is a top priority for Ramaphosa, and the unrest will test his administration’s commitment to reforms aimed at putting a struggling economy on sustained growth path.
In 2015, severe power constraints caused a prolonged period of outages, hitting growth.
Eskom is regularly cited as a threat to South Africa’s credit rating because it has more than 220 billion rand (Dh60 billion or $16.4 billion) of government-guaranteed debt.
Eskom started controlled outages — known locally as “load-shedding” — on Thursday after it said protesters had blocked trucks carrying coal and buses ferrying staff to power stations.
‘Intimidation and sabotage’
Two large labour unions, the National Union of Mineworkers and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, have threatened a total shutdown of Eskom’s operations unless it meets their demands for a 15 per cent pay rise.
Eskom spokesman Khulu Phasiwe blamed the power cuts on acts of “intimidation and sabotage” by union members.