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Unions want judicial inquiry into Eskom

Johannesburg – Several unions in the metals and engineering sector on Thursday called for a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate Eskom’s problems.

“Eskom appears to be telling us something, but they are telling us nothing, that is why it is imperative to make this call for a judicial commission of inquiry,” National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) deputy general secretary Karl Cloete told reporters.

The inquiry should look at matters including the provision of coal, the state of the parastatal’s leadership, and its maintenance plan.

“We can no longer trust that shifting of a Molefe from Transnet to Eskom... constitutes a viable solution,” he said, referring to acting Eskom CEO Brian Molefe.

Part of Eskom’s call for a 24.7% tariff increase to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), was its need for billions to buy diesel to run its open-cycle gas turbines.

“We need to see much more transparency with respect to the billions being spent on diesel and the pockets that is going into,” Cloete said.

Nersa is due to hold public hearings on Eskom’s increase application on June 23 and 24.

Cloete said Solidarity, Numsa, the Metal and Electrical Workers’ Union of SA, and employer body Seifsa would exchange their submissions to Nersa to try and “fine tune” them.

Numsa’s Dinga Sikwebu said they wanted to see a substantial maintenance plan from Eskom, as the impression they had was that money was being thrown at a problem, only for the utility to keep asking for further price hikes.

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