Mining Weekly reports that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) announced on Tuesday that it would march on the African National Congress’ (ANC's) Luthuli House head office, in Johannesburg, on 30 March to voice its opposition to the unbundling of Eskom.
It would also use the protest action to call for the resignation of the state-owned power utility’s board and the cancellation of power purchase agreements with independent power producers. The union moreover reiterated its earlier threat of a “total shutdown” from Friday, 3 May leading up to the national elections, scheduled for Wednesday, 8 May. The union is in a formal alliance with labour federation Cosatu, to which the NUM is affiliated. It said in a statement: “So far, there is no guarantee or a solid commitment that signal there would not be retrenchments during the unbundling process. It is widely believed that the move will result in many job losses.” The NUM, which has 15,000 Eskom members and 3,000 more at Eskom Rotek Industries, warned in February that the government’s unilateral decision to restructure the power utility could trigger a withdrawal of its support for the ANC in the upcoming election.
- Read the full original of the report on the march at Mining Weekly
- Read too, NUM threatens week-long Eskom ‘shutdown’ ahead of general election, at Moneyweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page