We will defend Eskom in the streets
8 February 2019
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa is preparing to do battle with the state in defence of our State Owned Enterprises and Eskom in particular. President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday evening, confirmed our worst fears, which is that the ANC government has decided to privatize SOE’s.
Ramaphosa confirmed that Eskom will be broken up into three parts, Generation, Transmission and Distribution. He also confirmed that ‘non-core assets’ of SOE’s would be sold. This is nothing more than privatization through the back door and we reject it!
It is clear that the working class is in for more suffering because the president is also calling for a tariff increase at Eskom. Last year the same ANC increased general taxes in the form of VAT. This, coupled with increases in the petrol price will worsen the suffering of the working class majority and the poor.
Only an Eskom which is completely owned and controlled by the state is the best guarantee for cheap electricity. History has shown us that once the private sector is allowed to step in, prices increase and massive job shedding is inevitable.