Zukile Majova
As South Africa enters Stage 6 of load shedding, power utility Eskom has laid the blame at the foot of its striking workers.
Eskom has put an offer on the table to end a wage strike that has crippled power production in at least eight power stations across the country.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, Numsa, confirmed it met Eskom management as part of the Central Bargaining Forum.
“We deliberated for almost twelve hours and finally, Eskom made a wage offer with a proposed draft agreement. We are taking it to our members for a mandate,” said Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.
The unions are due to meet Eskom management on Tuesday to give feedback to the bargaining council.
On Sunday, Eskom said: “Stage 6 load shedding will be implemented on Monday afternoon, with varying stages of load shedding implemented during the week.”
Eskom said 3,384 MW of power was under maintenance while a further 18,319 MW of capacity was unavailable because of breakdowns.
Industries, mining companies and small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) should brace themselves for another two or three weeks of power cuts.
“Eskom cautions the public that it will still take a few weeks for the power generation system to fully recover to pre-strike levels,” Eskom said on Sunday.
More than 10 hours a day are lost due to Stage 6 load shedding while Stage 8 takes 12 hours from a 24 hour cycle.
It’s bad news for the National Development Plan which has pinned its target of creating more than 11 million new jobs on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises.
These companies are forced to close their businesses during load shedding because using alternative power supplies like generators is too expensive with petrol at R23 a litre.
Stage 4 load shedding will be implemented between 5am and 4pm on Monday, and Stage 6 from 4pm to 10pm.
