Engineering News reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa acknowledged on Thursday that there had been insufficient consultation with labour on government’s plan to unbundle Eskom into three separate companies.  

But, he also stressed that the proposed restructuring would not result in privatisation.  In his response to the debate on the State of the Nation Address (Sona), the President said that inclusivity should be the fundamental principle that underpinned the country’s response to the Eskom crisis, the depth of which had become evident again with the return of load-shedding.  “We accept, as government, that we have not done enough to bring some of our key stakeholders, such as labour, on board on the various aspects of this matter, but we are determined to correct this,” Ramaphosa said, indicating that a “deep conversation” would be held with labour on Eskom in the coming days.  He urged stakeholders to reject the “false narrative” that the only way out was through bitter confrontation and conflict.  “Our challenges will not be resolved in the streets, but we will gather around the table to find workable solutions,” he said.  His speech came only hours after the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) expressed its anger at a media briefing at the fact that the unbundling decision had been made in the absence of any prior consultation with the union.

• Read the original of this report in full at Mining Weekly

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