Johannesburg - Operations at the Medupi power station in
Lephalale, Limpopo, remained suspended on Thursday morning after a protest by
construction workers, Eskom said.
"We are not closed but most operations are suspended.
However, there are people on site," spokesperson Hilary Joffe said.
"We are working with the contractors to engage with
workers so we can get operations on the site back to normal as soon as
possible."
On Wednesday, 25 workers were injured when violence broke
out as strikers tried to stop buses from taking their colleagues to the
construction site, Joffe said.
"There were disruptions to the bus transport and
strikers pelted the buses with stones. As Eskom we do not condone
violence," she said.
"Yesterday's protest mainly involved workers affiliated
to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) who are employed
by Hitachi Kaefer and Murray & Roberts Projects," she said.
On Wednesday, Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim claimed
management provoked the protest.
"We think that companies at Medupi are extremely
mischievous and we think that there is a deliberate agenda to consistently
create frustrations and to provoke workers for the sole intention of delaying
the project so that they extend their benefits in that project."
He said last week workers queried the bonuses they were
paid.
On Friday about 1 100 workers employed by Alstom Kentz at
Medupi went on strike, resulting in the company locking them out.
Eskom said Medupi's first unit was expected to start generating
power to South Africa's national grid by the end of the year.
Follow Fin24 on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest.