Unions declare war on Cyril Ramaphosa’s plan to break up Eskom
Numsa's Irvin Jim says the break-up of Eskom is ‘nothing more than privatisation through the back door’
President Cyril Ramaphosa's plan to split Eskom into three separate entities is being strongly opposed by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Ramaphosa said in his state of the nation address (Sona) on Thursday that Eskom would be broken up into three state-owned entities: generation, transmission and distribution. He also said that noncore assets of state-owned enterprises would be sold but that there would be no privatisation of strategic state-owned assets. Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said on Friday the break-up of Eskom was “nothing more than privatisation through the back door”, which was rejected by the union. “Only an Eskom which is completely owned and controlled by the state is the best guarantee for cheap electricity. History has shown us that once the private sector is allowed to step in, prices increase and massive job shedding is inevitable,” Jim said in a statement. “The unbundling of Eskom will result in ...
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