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Cosatu has backed NUM’s legal challenge against Eskom’s restructuring, opposing privatisation and demanding protections for jobs and bargaining rights.
Trade union federation Cosatu has come out in support of the National Union of Mineworkers’ legal challenge against the Eskom restructuring task team’s phase one report.
The federation is opposing any move it believes is an attempt to privatise the electricity grid and is demanding guarantees that utility workers will not lose their jobs or bargaining rights.
Cosatu’s Zanele Sabela wants the government to first deal with Eskom’s financial problems, including more than R120 billion owed by municipalities.
“Phase two of the Eskom restructuring task team process must fully respect collective bargaining and the principles of a just transition. A just transition must, in turn, protect jobs, strengthen Eskom, promote localisation and industrial development, ensure reliable and affordable electricity, and safeguard public ownership,” Sabelo said.
Earlier in August, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the unbundling of Eskom is not about privatising the power utility, but about creating greater competition in the electricity sector.
The government’s unbundling plan involves splitting the state-owned power utility into three separate entities, each responsible for generation, transmission and distribution.
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“We’re not privatising anything, particularly when it comes to the electricity sector. What we are doing is to restructure Eskom so that it becomes much more competitive, and we bring in other players. So, Eskom remains a state-owned enterprise,” Ramaphosa told the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa.
The president said the government was moving towards a competitive electricity market in which multiple generators would compete to supply electricity.
“Meaning that we have now gone past just the efficient generation. We now must move to an era where there’s competition, which will help to bring down prices,” he added.
He also said this would help in dealing with Eskom’s huge debt.
Source: https://www.jacarandafm.com/news/news/cosatu-backs-num-legal-challenge-eskom-restructuring/