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The National Education Health and Allied Workers Union released a statement on Friday, calling for Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan to resign following the resignation of Eskom chair Jabu Mabuza.
The union said it would support calls by its mother federation, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, for Gordhan to take "accountability", saying that the situation at the beleaguered power utility had not improved under the minister’s watch.
The Economic Freedom Fighters and the Congress of The People have also called for Gordhan to resign following Mabuza's resignation.
Mabuza's resignation came on the same day that President Cyril Ramaphosa indicated that he was looking to make changes to the Eskom board. Mabuza resigned, citing Eskom's failure to avoid loadshedding until 13 January, as Eskom management promised the president late last year.
Nehawu's statement said while the union welcomed Mabuza's resignation as the chairperson of the board of Eskom, Nehawu also wanted Minster of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan and other Eskom board members to follow suit.
"The national union believes that both the Minister of Public Enterprises, Mr Pravin Gordhan, and the rest of the Eskom board must resign with immediate effect for allowing the entity to deteriorate to such a despicable level," the statement said.
The statement insisted that Gordhan was not doing a good job bringing Eskom and other state-owned enterprises to recovery.
"Apart from twiddling his thumbs while Eskom crumbled he has also allowed other state-owned enterprises to be in a perpetual state of disarray. Majority of the SOE's are shambolically managed and haemorrhage money on a daily basis," the statement said.
The statement also said Minister of Finance, Tito Mboweni, had to be "reigned in" as he had "no regard" for the African National Congress or its alliance.
The statement was referring to a series of fiery tweets where the minister said the consequences would be dire if South Africa failed to introduce significant economic reforms.
Fin24 reached out to Eskom board member Busisiwe Mavuso to ask if she intended on resigning or staying on the board. However, she would not comment.
