In a parliamentary debate, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson on public enterprises, Pieter Groenewald, said the company, which asked government for a R23-billion bailout, is like ‘Marie Antoinette who did not realise that her country’s people were struggling and said that they had to eat cake while they were begging for bread’.
During the parliamentary debate on the special bill, Groenewald said the FF Plus should not support the bill as Eskom itself and its sole shareholder, the government, had caused the crisis. Regarding the Marie Antoinette comment, Groenewald explained that the reference to cake was one of the main reasons why the French proletariat’s patience eventually ran out and why her head was chopped off by guillotine.
“Today Eskom will ask the taxpayer for R23 billion, [then] in two days time, a tender will be put out in which it has asked for certain groceries and foodstuffs to be provided to Eskom’s corporate head office at Megawatt Park. This tender is for, among others, the regular delivery of 300 cakes which include black forest cake, Bar-One cakes and baked custard cakes,” he said.
Groenewald said this means that the top management of Eskom was living in luxury and eating cake on the account of the taxpayer.
He said, “Then they still had the gall to ask the National Energy Regulator (Nersa) for an additional 9.58 percent tariff increase which was amended down from 12.3 percent.”
He added that this meant the taxpayer has to keep on paying while the management of Eskom had itself created the crisis together with the African National Congress (ANC) government, which is its only shareholder, and that it cannot properly manage its assets.
Groenewald also said, “Eskom said that 1 183 whites now have to leave Eskom. This includes engineers and highly-skilled artisans. But then they complain about problems. An example is Duvha… where an explosion occurred as a result of overdue maintenance and ignorance, which caused more than R1-million in damages.”
However, Eskom spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe, rubbished these claims and stated that the provision of subsidised meals was part of Eskom’s value proposition to employees and is a negotiated condition of service. Phasiwe also said the company has no policy of discriminating against any group of people based on their race, gender or creed.
“In addition, Eskom must comply with the law (Employment Equity Act), doing this in a responsible and inclusive manner and that no current employees will lose their jobs because of employment equity,” he said.
Phasiwe said all unions, including Solidarity, were members of the Employment Equity and Skill Development Committee, which monitors the implementation of the plan throughout its duration.
