Pretoria - Electricity is to be restored to areas in Soweto that had been without power due to cable theft, Eskom said on Friday.
“Our workers worked last night on restoring supply. Basically the main part is to replace the cables and we expect that the various areas affected would be reconnected during the course of today,” Eskom spokesperson Andrew Etzinger said.
The affected areas that were without power for some time were Klipspruit and Pimville.
“It was caused by cable theft and unfortunately the community also took matters into their own hands and caused some damage which we needed to repair as well. There was vandalism,” he said.
On Wednesday night, residents damaged cars belonging to the utility at its Soweto depot.
Strike action
Meanwhile, as the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) strike continues, Eskom said its existing power stations have not been affected by the protest action that started on Tuesday.
“The existing power stations are operating as normal. There are stay-aways at the construction sites of our new power stations but that doesn’t have an immediate impact on power delivery at the moment,” he explained.
Approximately 4 000 workers had stayed away from the Medupi power station site, in Limpopo, as well as the Kusile power plant, in Mpumalanga.
“In numbers its about 30% of workers that stayed away on each of them [Medupi and Kusile]. For the running power stations our employees are at their workstations,” he said.
On Tuesday, Eskom said it had obtained a court interdict barring workers from going on strike. The utility is regarded as an essential service and therefore Eskom employees are prohibited from participating in any form of industrial action, making such industrial action regarded as unprotected.
On Wednesday, Eskom workers, who are affiliated to Numsa, staged a picket outside Eskom offices in Sunninghill where a memorandum was also handed over to the utility.
The no work, no pay principle still applies for those who are on strike, added Etzinger.
Workers are demanding an increase of 12 percent across the board as well as a housing allowance of R1 000, among others.
“The next step is to continue in our pursuit of a fair settlement with Numsa that process in addition to bilateral discussion which also if necessary start at the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] in mid-July both Eskom and Numsa have approached the CCMA to assist in brokering a deal,” said Etzinger.
In a statement on 27 June, Eskom said it had referred the labour dispute and organised labour to the CCMA.
“This is after organised labour had declared a dispute when the parties could not reach agreement during the final round of negotiations over employee salaries and conditions of service as per the company’s internal bargaining process,” it said.
In a statement on Friday, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) said efforts to end the current stalemate in the metals and engineering sector failed, last night, when Numsa rejected a new offer made by employers represented by SEIFSA.
The meeting took place hours after the SEIFSA Council – made up of Chairpersons of employer Associations affiliated to the Federation.
SEIFSA is a national employer federation representing the metal and engineering industry.
SEIFSA’s management team represents employers’ associations, as the recognised voice of the metal and engineering industry, on a number of organisations including the CCMA, and the Eskom Task Group on Electricity. - SAnews.gov.za
