Num urges Gordhan to stop interfering in running of SOE’s

The National Union of Mineworkers (Num) has urged Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to stop interfering in the running of state-owned enterprises (SOE) after he apparently requested that trade union Solidarity match names provided with the skills that are allegedly needed for Eskom.

Solidarity wrote to Gordhan in May, offering to help in mobilising what Gordhan has acknowledged are “critical skills”.

In a letter addressed to Solidarity’s Dirk Hermann, Gordhan thanked the union for the offer of assistance for Eskom’s “generation performance challenges”.

“Due to the urgency of the assistance required from Eskom, can you kindly provide the list of names of engineers and technical experts that can be deployed to Eskom to address the generation performance challenges facing the company. I have also referred your offer to the board of management of Eskom for further clarity,” Gordhan wrote in the letter.

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However, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) denied claims that Gordhan approached Solidarity to help recruit technical experts to save Eskom.

“To repeat, the minister did not approach Solidarity. He simply made a call to all organisations, including the social partners, for skilled personnel regardless of race to avail themselves to be placed at Eskom,”

The Num says it is surprised and flabbergasted by the so-called former employee’s skills list which was submitted to Gordhan.

“We understand political interference in the running of SOEs is the main reason for the collapse of the SOEs. We urge the Minister to stop the interference if it is true that he is involved.”

The Num says the mushrooming of this so-called list of critical skills is an attempt by some anti-transformation individuals to undermine the little that was done on transformation in Eskom.

“It is a neoliberal agenda with a touch of racism whose aim is to reverse transformation. The Num agrees that there are serious problems at Eskom. The cause of load shedding is not a lack of skills at the operational level but a lack of skills at the strategic level.

“The Eskom board and the executive do not have a sound turnaround strategy to deal with the challenges that Eskom is facing,” Num said.

The Num says it is opposed to the automatic employment of the people on the list and that all citizens of South Africa must be given equal opportunity to apply for these jobs.

“The time of job reservation is long gone, now everyone is given equal opportunity to apply for a job,” the Num said.

The DPE says Eskom will follow its own internal human resources policies and processes to ensure that the appropriate engineers, who possess the best skills and experience, are hired.

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