NUM to fight the implementation of the IPPs madness
14 March 2018
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) welcome and appreciate the ruling made by the Pretoria high court to stop the signing of 27 IPPs power purchase agreements by the Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe. We cannot allow him to perpetuate the stealing of money from the SOEs. The NUM condemn in the strongest terms the use of political office for personal wealth accumulation directly or indirectly.
The NUM last year embarked on the fight against the IPPs in line with our objectives of protecting jobs in the country. On the 29 of March 2017, the NUM challenged the government to review the implementation of the IPPs with success. The court action initiated by the two organizations is in line with our objectives. The tweet made by the Minister of Energy on the 12th of March 2018 is a sign that he has lost class consciousness; it is an indication that he is captured by the capitalist forces.
We view this capitalist IPPs deal as a backdoor privatization of Eskom. The plan is to privatize 42% of Eskom by 2030 masquerading as the implementation of clean energy. NUM and COSATU successfully fought against the privatization of Eskom before, we are ready to fight it even now. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) if implemented, will compel Eskom to buy Electricity at a higher price while Eskom can produce electricity at a cheaper price. The proposed agreements are nothing but daylight robbery. This will cause high scale job losses in the energy, mining, transport and all other sectors in the supply chain.
President of the ANC and the country Cyril Ramaphosa announced in Davos that the government will continue with the implementation of IPPs. The NUM does not agree with the implementation of IPPs at the expense of workers.