Pretoria - The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in Mpumalanga has urged President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire senior executives managing major power stations in their province, which generate electricity for the country.
NUM is accusing senior executives of not prioritising the stabilisation of the provision of electricity, but their own personal interests.
The labour union in the Highveld Region said it was greatly concerned and worried about the continued roll-out of stage 6 load shedding by Eskom.
The NUM Highveld Region operates in Mpumalanga, where most Eskom power stations are. The ongoing load shedding was unsustainable for the economies of most local communities, which may result in an increase of unemployment and poverty, it said.
Num regional secretary Thapelo Malekutu said his union felt much of this debilitating load sheddingcould have been avoided if the government had moved with greater speed to implement the commitments of the Eskom Social Compact. NUM was concerned that there seemed not to be a willingness to resolve the load shedding engulfing the entire country.
“Upon engaging our members on the ground at Eskom about the causes of the national crisis, the response was that load shedding will continue to be unavoidable because of power stations such as Kendal, Matla and Tutuka not operating in full capacity.
“The challenges at these power stations are known. It is disturbing that the general manager of Tutuka power station in particular is a failure, yet still in the post. Since he arrived at Tutuka, the power station has been under performing. His focus is on body guards always surrounding him as if he is acting in a movie but suffering from a colossal failure to turn around the power station, Malekutu said.
NUM called for the immediate removal of Eskom’s Tutuka power station general manager.
NUM was equally not happy with the performance of the general managers of Matla, Kendall and Kusile power stations, saying Kusile power station had been running with one unit.
“Also, the issue of replacement, breakdown and maintenance spares has been a permanent problem. South Africa could not be subjected to a permanent roll-out of load shedding moving it from one stage to another.
“The NUM calls on State President Cyril Ramaphosa to engage with us. and stop listening to or considering reports from Minister Pravin Gordhan.
“Minister Gordhan has reached the ceiling in terms of thinking. He knows nothing. He misled the President and brought so-called retired engineers into the system. Eskom does not need old engineers but young and energetic engineers.” Malekutu says NUM has a strategy on how to overcome some of Eskom’s challenges.
Meanwhile, civil rights organisation AfriForum has taken legal action against Eskom to obtain information regarding the power supplier’s controversial contracts.
On 12 July 2022, AfriForum served an application on Eskom in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia), demanding information on contracts Eskom has with various service providers, including coal suppliers and transport companies.
Reiner Duvenage, AfriForum’s campaign officer for strategy and content, said Eskom responded but key information was redacted and withheld.
AfriForum filed an internal appeal on September 28, 2022 noting that Eskom did not provide an adequate explanation of why the information was withheld. Therefore, AfriForum argued that Eskom did not comply with the act. Eskom, however, did not respond to the internal appeal, forcing AfriForum to take legal action to obtain a court order obliging Eskom to release said information.
“Eskom’s failure is causing incalculable damage to the country. That is why AfriForum is fighting in court for transparency and so that information about Eskom’s contracts is made public. If any irregularities are found, action will be taken against Eskom.”
Pretoria News