Eskom asset sale: SACP backs NUM

Johannesburg - The SACP has thrown its weight behind the National Union of Mineworkers’ call that Eskom must not sell some of its assets to generate cash.

NUM has upped the ante and asked for a meeting with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa to discuss its concerns and its unhappiness over plans to sell off some of the ailing power utility’s assets.

Ramaphosa, a former general secretary of NUM, has been tasked by the cabinet to take charge of getting Eskom out of the starting blocks as it struggles to meet targets and demands for electricity.

The SACP said in a post-central committee media briefing on Sunday that Eskom’s problems were complex and any attempts to privatise the parastatal would be a blunder, and should not be considered as an option to resolving its challenges.

In an interview with The Star, NUM general secretary Frans Baleni said members were being mobilised, and among their options was a decision to take to the streets to voice their demands.

“We have asked for a meeting with the deputy president, who is leading the war room on Eskom, as labour is not represented in there (the ‘war room’), but business is through Busa (Business Unity South Africa),” he added.

If Eskom went ahead with the sale of the company, it would anger workers who depend on the scheme for reasonably priced home loans.

If workers decided to embark on industrial action, the struggling parastatal would crumble.

Eskom chief executive Tshediso Matona is reported to have told a Reuters Africa investment summit that the electricity generator was considering selling the Eskom Finance Company, which provides home-loan facilities to its employees.

The union also got backing from the SACP on its opposition to the Independent System Market Operator Bill, which would take away Eskom’s energy transmission role, an action that would inevitably break the company’s monopoly on electricity generation.

The bill also received no support from the ANC, which called for its rejection during a national executive committee lekgotla in January.

NUM has begun a process that seeks to stop the sale of the finance company or any other assets by Eskom.

A campaign, called Save Our Eskom, will be used to galvanise support from all quarters of society.

The country is faced with an electricity crisis as a result of Eskom’s failure to generate sufficient power to meet demand, recently leaving households and businesses often in the dark.

The SACP believes the problems at the utility were brought about by a number of bad managerial decisions.

“The process led by cabinet’s war room has underlined and uncovered many weaknesses within Eskom. It is a national asset that now requires tough love,” the party’s general secretary, Dr Blade Nzimande, said.

The Star

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