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May 23 2012 09:47
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Johannesburg - The National Union of Mineworkers said on Tuesday it laments the chaotic situation in which the country has landed as a result of energy capacity problems but refutes
the trade union Solidarity's argument that it is due to skills shortages.
"This lack of energy capacity has nothing to do with skills shortages. We acknowledge that the country has skills shortages but deny that the problems at Eskom has to do with it," Frans Baleni, the Num's general secretary, said in a statement.
"Government conceded that the problems we face are due to its energy policies of the time, which ten years ago rejected Eskom's proposals which could have enabled the parastatal to increase capacity and thus alleviated the current problem," Baleni argued.
"It was government's insistence that the invisible hand of the market will solve the impending capacity problems that led us to this (sic) troubles," he added.
"It is the high demand for electricity and increasing economic activities that led to these major capacity problems. To argue that it is lack of skills that led to all these undermine the thousands of people employed at Eskom.
"Unless we are convinced otherwise, the implication of such an argument is that the employees at Eskom whom many are largely Africans are synonymous with lack of skills and incompetence.
"We hope that the cabinet lekgotla which is sitting will look at these energy problems which are largely of their own making," Baleni added.
- I-Net Bridge