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Skills shortage hits Eskom power plants

 Cape Town - On Tuesday Eskom conceded that it would probably be unable to recruit enough people with specialised skills to complete the two coal-fired power stations currently under construction in time.
 
Eskom chief operating officer Dan Morokane told the public enterprises portfolio committee that Eskom would be able to train only about 600 of the 1 500 welders required over the next six years.

These specialised workers are needed for the completion of the Medupi and the Kusile power stations.

South Africa’s short-term energy security depends on the finishing of the two projects by 2017.

Eskom’s submission clearly indicates that the building projects will be held without sufficient welders.

The committee was told that the recent protest actions by South African workers at the power stations against the use of foreign welders represented a significant risk for the projects’ completion.

The protests, just ahead of the local elections, had led to violence and forced construction to a standstill.

Around 25% to 30% of the welders maintaining the existing generation capacity are foreigners.

In order to meet the construction deadline for the new power stations, it would be necessary to employ 75% of the welders from foreign countries.

Lance Greyling (ID) questioned why it had taken so long to put in place a welder-training programme such as the one Eskom had recently instituted.

In a separate submission to the portfolio committee, Transnet said it required more than R400m for skills training for its building programme.

Transnet group chief executive Brian Molefe told the committee that most of Transnet’s labour force consisted of young people between the ages of 25 and 35.

About 6 500 were above 55.

There were very few workers aged 39 to 45 who could take over the reins from senior management in a couple of years.

Molefe attributed this to a generation that had not received the necessary training during the years of the apartheid struggle in the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s.

- Sake24

For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.
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