Business Report writes that Eskom's plans to consider recruiting a group of retired engineers to boost its capacity to maintain its ageing coal-fired power stations has angered black engineers.  

Last week, Eskom announced that a group of 60 retired engineers had volunteered their skills to help rebuild the organisation.  The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) over the weekend slammed the plan, accusing Eskom CE Andre de Ruyter of overlooking black engineers.  NSBE president Mdu Mlaba said they were “completely offended” by the list of the touted engineers revealed by De Ruyter at a presentation to MPs.  “A list of cherry-picked retired engineers was subsequently shared with NSBE, and upon close scrutiny, we discovered that all of them are white. We are aware that most of them are not qualified engineers; they are artisans and, at best, technicians,” Mlaba claimed.  He added:  “We are enraged by this plan, as it undermines black engineers who are qualified, experienced and competent to fix the technical challenges at Eskom.  Not long ago, Eskom let go of some 20 highly experienced technical managers under the guise of restructuring.  Most of them were black.”  An Eskom spokesperson said they welcomed all engineers who had specialist skills, regardless of their gender and race, and would consider their CVs individually.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siphelele Dludla at Business Report

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