Cape Town - Eskom says the recovery progress at power stations remains slow due to many workers still refusing to return on duty.
A high level of staff absenteeism, some are involved in operations at the power plants, was reported on Wednesday.
This is despite the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) urging their members on Tuesday to return to work after Eskom management returned to the negotiation table, with talks headed to the Central Bargaining Forum (CBF) on Friday.
NUM national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said they can confirm from the reports the union received across the country that their members were back to work at five power stations, including Medupi and the situation had returned to normal.
“We are facing challenges at a couple of power plants including Hendrina, Matla in Mpumalanga and Lethabo in the Free State. The workers are saying they can’t normalise a situation where there is no wage agreement signed. Our leaders on the ground are working hard to resolve these stay-away challenges at the power stations,” said Mammburu.
NUMSA national spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said: “This is not a NUMSA strike. We cannot account for high levels of absenteeism.”
Eskom’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha, said while some of the workers returned to their essential duties, many were no-shows.
Mantshantsha said as a result of the unlawful strike, routine maintenance work has had to be postponed.
This led to stage 6 load shedding continuing from 4pm until 10pm in the evening, while Stage 4 was implemented from 10pm to midnight.
Load shedding will be reduced to Stage 2 until 5am on Thursday. From 5am until midnight on Thursday, load shedding will be implemented at Stage 4.
“This backlog will take days to weeks to clear. It is therefore important to note that the system will remain constrained and vulnerable to additional breakdowns while recovery activities are in progress. Due to the unlawful and unprotected labour action, which has caused widespread disruption to Eskom’s power plants, Eskom is unable to return some generators to service.
“This has compelled Eskom to continue taking precautionary measures to conserve emergency generation capacity and safeguard plants from damage. Eskom continues to closely monitor the system and will implement any changes as may be necessary,” said Mantshantsha.
He said there remains a risk that the stage of load shedding may have to change at any time, depending on the state of the plant.
According to Mantshantsha, the power utility had 3 161 megawatts (MW) on planned maintenance, while another 17 395MW was lost due to system breakdowns.
“Eskom would also like to pay tribute and thank those many employees who keep going beyond the call of duty and continue to help keep the lights on during this very challenging time.
“We also wish to thank the members of the SA Police Services who continue to play a key role in ensuring that disruptions of law and order were minimised at power stations during the strike,” said Mantshantsha.
Cape Times