President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan to divide Eskom into three separate entities is rejected by the unions. The two major unions are the National Union of Metalworkers in SA (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM).
In his State of the Nation address, Ramaphosa said in Parliament that the Eskom entity will be divided into three separate structures, each of which will play a particular role.
The Eskom entities will consist of a Distributor, Drive and a Generation Unit, and while this will be done, the state owned Eskom will not be privatized, but will shares will be made available.
Numsa’s secretary Irvin Jim says Eskom’s “break up” is nothing but privatization via the back door. The union threatened that its members would not go to the polls and could be a tough blow for Ramaphosa.
The Union believes Eskom’s division will lead to job losses that will be detrimental to the national economy and say it will mean more expensive consumer spending.
Num also took a stand against the Ramaphosa plan and said it would lead to mass unemployment across large areas.
Read the original article in Afrikaans on Die Vryburger
South Africa Today – South Africa News
