EFF STATEMENT ON ESKOM 51% BLACK OWNERSHIP OF EXXARO AND ALL ITS OTHER SUPPLIERS

05 January 2017

The EFF supports Eskom on Exxaro 51% black ownership. We believe Eskom 51% black ownership policy must be strictly applicable to all Eskom suppliers, with the aim of making sure that all ESKOM Suppliers are minimum owned 50% by indigenous black South Africans. 

As the EFF we believe that 51% black ownership must be awarded to workers and not BEE schemes that benefit few individuals. BEE has for many years been used as a vehicle to empower few black individuals who are in actual fact, gatekeepers of white monopoly capital. BEE Ownership must never mean empowerment of few black individuals. 

We encourage Eskom to instruct Exxaro and all its other suppliers to have 51% black ownership through workers ownership schemes, and must never retreat on the demand that Exxaro must be empowered at minimum of 51%. This should be so because in anyway, the Mines which Exxaro mines coal from are assets that are largely owned by ESKOM.

The EFF strongly believes that all other state-owned companies must adopt procurement policies that instruct their suppliers to also have 51% black ownership through workers ownership schemes. This way, many workers will begin to benefit from the companies they work for. This is consistent with the demands the Economic Freedom March.

The EFF will further table a special draft resolution in Parliament, which will result in a legislative requirement for all State and State Owned Companies’ suppliers to have 51% black ownership, which should primarily be through workers ownership schemes. 

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 5 January 2016