South Africans can brace for even greater load-shedding misery this week if Eskom suffers another major breakdown this weekend as a pay strike adds to the utility's woes.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the strike was preventing repair work being done. He said there had been intimidation of nonstriking workers, which had resulted in load-shedding being ramped up on Friday to stage 4.
“Those who want to work are being intimidated; commodities — including coal — have been prevented from entering the [power stations],” he said.
“We have had to reduce the usage of diesel to hold the reserves back in case of an emergency. If there is a breakdown now we can't call on people to fix anything. So in case of a breakdown, where we would use a reserve, we had to escalate to stage 4.”
Mantshantsha said it was not possible to say how much diesel had been used already, but consumption had risen.
On Friday, Eskom was granted a court interdict against the unprotected strike action at nine of its power stations and facilities.
Workers are striking over wages. Negotiations at the Eskom central bargaining forum, where the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the National Union of Mineworkers and Solidarity are represented, deadlocked last week.
A Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration process is now under way.
Mantshantsha said Eskom was offering increases of between 4% and 5.3% for about 30,000 staff represented in the bargaining forum — an average of 4.7%.
“The unions’ demand opened at 15% increases across the board, but was reduced to 12% by Numsa and between 8% and 10% for NUM and they did not budge. Eskom then walked out.” Solidarity is seeking 5.5%.
Mantshantsha said that according to the state's bailout conditions, managers would not receive increases or bonuses.
Numsa, in a press release, denounced the Eskom board and management as having no credibility.
“They are complicit in a new form of state capture, where they actively steal from workers to benefit corrupt cronies who are politically connected to the governing ANC ... They walked out because they do not want to be held accountable for their actions.”
Union general secretary Irvin Jim said Numsa leaders would be consulting their members about how to proceed.
In a statement yesterday, Johannesburg's City Power said its Randburg team was “under tremendous pressure due to multiple outages affecting different areas, most affected by load-shedding”.
Worst-hit suburbs were Bryanston, Blairgowrie, Olivedale, Fountainbleau and Ferndale.
“Inrush current and overloading are the reasons for the tripping, especially after load-shedding restorations. Cables that have been repaired after theft are also susceptible to faults during load-shedding because they have been weakened over time.”
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