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Cape Town - Eskom needs to sort out its management issues and put people in charge that will ensure the country has reliable power supply, Fedusa said on Thursday.
“We need proper management installed at Eskom,” Federation of Unions of SA president Koos Bezuidenhout told News24.
He was speaking after Fedusa and other organisations met Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria to discuss efforts to ensure a secure electricity supply.
READ: Nene: Brown is not replacing full Eskom board
Also at the meeting were Business Unity SA, the Black Business Council, the Congress of SA Trade Unions, and the National Council of Trade Unions.
He said the suspensions of members of the Eskom board “sounds nice” and were “politically fine”, but at the end of the day did nothing to “bring home the bacon”, like deal with the backlog in maintenance of power stations.
Organised labours’ input into the matter had been clear for a long time. Companies were shedding jobs, putting workers on short time, or going into liquidation because they could not produce due to an unreliable electricity supply.
Eskom’s ratings downgrade would make it more expensive for the utility to borrow money for its expansion programme.
“To fund these expansions is going to be very costly and the consumer will pay for it,” he said.
Improved maintenance
Wage increases would in no way cover electricity tariff hikes. Eskom was making a bid to get a 25% increase in electricity prices from the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).
“We’re in trouble and we need to fix it. Let’s be positive,” he said.
On March 12, Eskom announced that CEO Tshediso Matona, finance director Tsholofelo Molefe, group capital executive Dan Morokane, and commercial and technology executive Matshela Koko would step down.
Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut CEO Christo van der Rheede welcomed the plan announced by Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown at the meeting.
It included implementing an improved maintenance and operational strategy, restoring its boiler and generation capacity, and ensuring that construction of the Medupi and Kusile power stations remained on track.
In addition it would involve greater use of the Sasol gas supply from Mozambique and additional power from gas-fired power plants in Namibia and from Ressano Garcia in Mozambique.
Much emphasis was placed on managing demand and reducing load shedding, which cost between R9 to R15 per KWh.
“The overall estimated cost of load shedding on the economy amounts to between R8 to 11bn per month. In addition using diesel as a means to generate electricity costs up to R4 to R5 per kWh,” Van der Rheede said.
Treasury was taking 60 municipalities to task for owing Eskom R9bn.
“The AHi supports these interventions wholeheartedly and congratulates the deputy president, Minister Lynne Brown and Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene for showing strong political leadership,” he said.
Presidency spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said after the meeting that business, labour and community undertook to work with government to restore public and business confidence in Eskom and the economy.
According to Mamoepa, Ramaphosa told the meeting: "We are seeking sustainable ways to stabilise Eskom and the national grid, and advance energy efficiency in our country; we want to return Eskom to optimal technical capability so that it can carry on doing what it does best.”
