Eskom employees return to work

Dylan Bettencourt

Eskom revealed that many of its employees returned to work peacefully on Wednesday morning. 

“There are no incidents of protest action today,” said the power utility’s spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha.

While Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said Eskom had reached an agreement with the unions on a wage increase, unions have denied this. 

Eskom announced Stage 6 loadshedding on Tuesday afternoon due to unlawful protest action that left many of its power stations understaffed. 

Stage 6 was implemented from 4pm to 10pm on Tuesday night and will be again on Wednesday evening at the same times.

Minister Pravin Gordhan said as a result of extensive negotiations between some of the unions and the management at Eskom earlier today, an agreement was reached on the wage settlement that both parties will commit themselves to in due course,” Gordhan said. 

Distinguished education professor Jonathan Jansen however offered Eskom a solution to the striking workers on Twitter. 

“My humble suggestion: cut the salaries of all Eskom employees by half until they solve this problem. Then you’d see some action,” he wrote on Twitter. 

Spokesperson Mantshantsha said details of the wage offer made to the unions for the workers will be revealed on Friday. 

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) however claimed that there has not been an agreement with Eskom. 

The unions have requested that Gordhan retract his statements regarding the alleged agreement. 

“We want to set the record straight. We have not come to any agreement with Eskom. An offer was tabled which members are engaging on,” NUM and Numsa said in a joint statement. 

“For the next few days, we will be consulting members to find out if they accept the proposal. Our members have not had a chance to see the proposal.”

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