Power hike strike averted - for now

Johannesburg - A top-level ministerial negotiating team has joined Nedlac talks to help prevent a general strike protesting Eskom's tariff increases.

The cabinet members – Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan, her deputy Enoch Godongwana, and Energy Minister Dipuo Peters – are hoping to negotiate a settlement over Eskom's proposed 25% per year tariff increases up to 2013.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi welcomed the team, saying it greatly improved the chimate for negotiating an equable settlement on the increases.

"The issue has now developed into a much wider one, involving the country's overall energy strategy," said Vavi.
 
The whole challenge of energy in South Africa – from the country's stocks of coal to the creation of alternative sectors, jobs in alternative energy sectors, and even to nuclear energy – was now being jointly examined.

The dispute had been pending at Nedlac since March, but up to now only junior government and Eskom officials had been involved in the dispute resolution process. These representatives had no mandate to take any decisions and the situation had devolved into trade federation Cosatu's threats of a strike.

On June 14, three days after the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Cosatu was to have obtained a Nedlac certificate entitling it to call a countrywide strike because its dispute over the Eskom increases was not being resolved.

The only reason the certificate was not issued was because of the planned effort currently being made to find a lasting solution to the tariff increases, said Bheki Ntshali-Ntshali, deputy general secretary of Cosatu. 

Vavi said the government was now examining the effect of the tariff increases on various segments of the community, and the Nedlac group would soon be given this information. He said the information would help Cosatu see whether it was possible to find a way to soften the burden of the increases on the poor.

-  Sake24.com