By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan has sent a letter to trade union Solidarity, asking for its assistance in addressing the skills shortfall at Eskom.
The letter, which is addressed to Solidarity’s chief executive Dirk Hermann, thanks the union for its offer of assistance and asks if Solidarity can compile a list of engineers and technical experts to assist.
Gordhan added that specific skills that Eskom is looking for include:
°Power station engineers (mechanical, electrical, nuclear, system, and maintenance);
°Senior artisans;
°Plant operators (coal and nuclear).
In response, Hermann said the union has the names of hundreds of experts who ‘have raised their hand to help’, and that the group is prepared to assist Eskom and the government if they are really ready to receive help.
In May 2020, a group of retired engineers comprising former Eskom employees offered to help fix the problems at the power utility for free. Eskom said it would consider the CVs individually and welcomed those with specialist skills to help without compensation.
However, these offers of assistance were historically turned down by Eskom, with critics noting they did not meet the power utility’s transformation criteria and/or were past retirement age.
The Eskom boss said the power utility can’t simply accept the offers of 70 skilled pensioners to return to the power utility and work for free. He added that the power utility must consider transformation, liability, and accountability in navigating the offers from these retirees.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is set to announce a package of reforms to address the country’s ongoing load shedding and power crisis in the coming days.
Addressing the inaugural Black Industrialists and Exporters Conference in Sandton on Wednesday (20 July), the president said the country’s black industrialists, like every other actor in the economy, can simply not grow without a reliable supply of affordable energy.
“That is why I have brought together all relevant departments and entities to work on an integrated set of measures to add additional power to the grid in the shortest possible time,” he said.
“We are currently engaged in consultations with social partners on these measures and will soon be able to announce a package of measures that provides an effective response to our energy crisis.”
Ramaphosa also committed to reforms in a number of other areas to assist the business sector – including the country’s deteriorating infrastructure and transport network.
“We should be discussing the steps we have taken – and still need to take – to significantly improve the state of our ports, rail lines and roads. We need to discuss the far-reaching reforms we are taking in telecommunications, energy and water to improve the competitiveness of our economy and reduce the cost of doing business.
“These reforms are all necessary if we are to create conditions that enable black industrialists to emerge, grow and flourish. In particular, we need to act decisively and urgently to end the load shedding that is causing such damage to our economy and such disruption to our society.