THE National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has expressed its shock by the so-called former employees’ skills list, that was allegedly submitted to Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.
NUM said it was aware of media reports that Gordhan had requested trade union Solidarity to match the names provided with skills that were allegedly needed at Eskom.
“If it is true that the minister is involved, it means he is interfering with the duties of Eskom executives,” said NUM general-secretary William Mabapa.
He said political interference in the running of state-owned enterprises was the main reason for their collapse.
“We urge the minister to stop the interference, if it is true,” said Mabapa, adding that NUM was opposed to the automatic employment of the people on the list.
He said all citizens needed to be given equal opportunity to apply for jobs.
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The union admitted that there were serious problems at Eskom, but said the cause of load shedding was not a lack of skills at operational level but of skills at strategic level.
Mabapa said the power utility board and executives did not have a sound turnaround strategy to deal with the challenges Eskom was facing.
“Eskom is faced with challenges that range from the cost independent power producers, the R400 billion debt, cost of primary energy, drop in sales and municipal debt of around R40 billion, among others,” he said.
News24 reported on Wednesday, 20 July, that Gordhan had asked Solidarity for a list of people with the necessary technical skills to help government address the crisis at Eskom.
Gordhan wrote to Solidarity managing director Dirk Hermann on 14 July, thanking the union for its offer in May to mobilise critical skills.
Mabapa said NUM had full confidence in engineers and artisans at the power utility.
