NUM totally rejects the decision taken by government to unbundle Eskom.

8 February 2019

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) totally rejects the proposed business model announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa during the State of the Nation Address last night to broke up Eskom into three parts, Generation, Transmission, and Distribution. President Cyril Ramaphosa also confirmed that non-core assets of Eskom would be sold. The unbundling of Eskom will result in massive job losses and retrenchments in provinces like Mpumalanga.

The NUM members and other workers at Eskom are totally opposed to the privatisation of the power utility to enrich the few elites.

NUM is against any attempt to unbundle Eskom. It is the privatisation of Eskom to enrich the elites. It is not about saving costs. We, therefore, call upon the government to reconsider its position because it is anti-working class and the poor. It will result in electricity being expensive and it will be unaffordable to the poor. The NUM is going to fight tooth and nail against the unbundling the Eskom. 

If the government wants to save costs at Eskom, they must cancel the 27 IPPs agreements signed by the Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe that are costing Eskom about R93 million a day. The NUM is not against renewable energy, we are saying that IPPs must stand alone and compete with Eskom. The NUM has long advised the government that the only turn around strategy of Eskom is to stop the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) who are looting the resources of Eskom.

Issued by Livhuwani Mammburu, National Spokesperson, NUM, 8 February 2019