NATIONAL NEWS - Despite a possible end in sight to Eskom workers’ illegal strike, after an agreement between Eskom and unions was reached in principle yesterday, the power utility has warned South Africans that the system will take some time to recover.
National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu explains that the wage offer will be discussed at the central bargaining forum tomorrow.
If it is accepted, it will be taken to the unions’ members to get their input. Meanwhile, unions have called on their workers to ‘normalise’ the situation at the country’s power stations.
Eskom is currently implementing stage 4 load-shedding until 16:00 and stage 6 from 16:00 to 22:200. It is the first time since December 2019 that stage 6 has been implemented.
Although South Africa may miss the stage 8 bullet if workers heed the call to return to work today – and providing the agreement is accepted and no unforeseen breakdowns happen – the events of the week are a grim reminder of how fragile the national energy grid is.
VIDEO: Energy expert Chris Yelland speaks to Izak du Plessis about possible stage 8 load shedding.
Chris Yelland, an energy expert and director of EE Business Intelligence, says the industrial action has had an immeasurable impact on the already beleaguered power utility, with 10 of its units out of order since Monday.
“Because of the shortage of workers, only three of them were restarted,” he says.
Jan Oberholzer, the chief operating officer of Eskom, said on Tuesday that load-shedding could be intensified to stage 8.
Yelland says that during stage 8, there will be six to eight hours of load-shedding in 24 hours, depending on the area in which you live and who the power supplier is. This will have damaging repercussions, says Yelland.
“It is very disruptive to day-to-day life, especially in commerce and industry. It will have a huge impact on the economy. People are unlikely to invest when they are not sure of the power supply.”
Yelland says he is not sure whether the current situation is due to political influence.
“Industrial action and wage increase demands happen every year this time, but the current demand of a 15% increase is way beyond government’s means.”
This could point to political maneuvering, he says.
Widespread anger
South Africans have condemned the strike and the intimidation involved, with social media channels flooded with angry comments from people fed-up with the power outages:
“It is economic sabotage at a national keypoint and should be treated as such,” said the Solidarity Union’s Dr Dirk Hermann in a statement.
