Cosatu backs NUM’s march to Eskom headquarters calling for De Ruyter’s axing  

Cosatu has thrown its weight behind Saturday’s protest march by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to Eskom’s headquarters in Johannesburg.

NUM, an affiliate of the trade union federation, will embark on a march to Megawatt Park in Sunninghill as part of a rolling programme of mass action directed at stopping the unbundling and alleged privatisation of the power utility. 

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The union is demanding the resignations of Eskom’s chief executive officer (CEO) André de Ruyter and chief operating officer (COO) Jan Oberholzer, as well as the dissolution of Eskom’s board.

NUM is also calling for the conditions of service for their members to be immediately reinstated.

Cosatu opposed to Eskom’s unbundling

Cosatu’s spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the federation was opposed to the unbundling of Eskom into three wholly-owned entities: generation, transmission and distribution.

He said Cosatu would also never accept the privatisation of the utility.

“The power utility is the lifeblood of our economy, and we remain adamant that it should remain in the hands of the state. The economy needs reliable and affordable energy supply for it to recover. The current and ongoing load shedding is a risk to jobs and the economy,” Pamla said in a statement.

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Pamla said Cosatu had presented an Eskom social compact at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) that proposed key intervention areas to stabilise and rebuild the parastatal. 

These included ensuring the security of workers’ jobs and tackling corruption and wasteful expenditure at Eskom.

“The federation reiterates its call for all Eskom contracts to be reviewed to ensure that they are legal and affordable.  

“We also want clear just transition processes to be put in place to ensure that coal power stations and mines reaching the end of their life span are managed properly and workers are given the necessary support.

“This is critical to ensure that workers are not retrenched, and communities not devastated.”

Cosatu has called on all its members to support the NUM’s march to ensure that workers’ voices are heard.   

The protest action is expected to begin at 10am on Saturday at the corner of Edison and Maxwell Drive in Sunninghill, Sandton.

Government does not intend to sell Eskom

Deputy President David Mabuza on Thursday said government did not intend to sell Eskom, and defended its board and executive management.

“We understand that this criticism stems from load shedding and South Africans should understand that the leadership of Eskom found a utility, found this plant not in a good state in terms of maintenance.

“What is currently happening is that as this leadership plans how to maintain this plant, there are unplanned outages that disrupt the entire plan,” he said.

Mabuza was speaking in the National Assembly during his last session for the year to respond to MPs oral questions.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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