Possible strike threatens S. Africa with more load shedding

Source: Xinhua| 2019-08-05 23:20:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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CAPE TOWN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Widespread concerns mounted on Monday over a possible strike at electricity utility Eskom which could plunge South Africa into darkness again later this year.

Eskom managers reportedly have threatened to implement more load shedding if their demand for a salary hike was not met.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) on Monday added its voice to the call on all the parties involved to resolve the salary dispute in a responsible manner by not plunging the economy and the utility into even further distress.

According to local news outlet TimesLIVE, a group of Eskom senior managers is taking the power utility to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) after not receiving salary increases and incentive bonuses last year.

The group of between 180 and 200 managers earn up to three million rand (about 200,000 U.S. dollars) per person annually. They want a 4.7-percent increase which breaks up to 141,000 rand (about 9,500 dollars) each.

As a state-run parastatal that provides about 95 percent of the electricity consumed in South Africa, Eskom is facing a deepening financial crisis and 20.7 billion rand (about 1.4 billion dollars) in losses in the past financial year.

Last month, Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni announced a bailout of 59 billion rand (about 4 billion dollars) to Eskom to allow it to formulate a recovery plan for another 12 to 18 months.

Ordinary South Africans will now be expected to pay up yet again as Eskom's senior managers are requesting higher salaries and bonuses, the DA said.

"Senior management should be an example when it comes to austerity measures by reviewing salaries instead of holding the country and the economy to ransom because they have not been given a salary increase," the party said.

Crippled by poor management and corruption, Eskom has been blamed for electricity insufficiency that has gripped the country for the past decade, particularly for the past three years when constant power blackouts were implemented, seriously impeding economic development and affecting people's lives.

"Eskom's financial trajectory is not sustainable," DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises Natasha Mazzone said. "South Africa cannot afford a recurrence of load shedding, as we stare down the slow collapse of the entity."

This will have irreparable consequences for the country's already ailing economy and ordinary citizens, Mazzone said.

In order to reduce the cost of electricity and bring about much-needed competition, the DA has introduced the Cheaper Energy Bill as an alternative plan to save and stabilize Eskom to secure South Africa's power supply.

This will break Eskom into two separate entities -- a generation entity which is privatized and a transmission/distribution entity and ensure that South Africa is not being forced to pay for the corruption and mismanagement which has taken place at Eskom, according to Mazzone.

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