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TimesLIVE reports that more than 150 employees of the non-operational Rooiwal power station in Tshwane have been reporting to work daily for more than 10 years, earning wages but without work to do.
This was indicated by workers during a visit by mayor Cilliers Brink on Monday. The Tshwane metro plans to offer 40-year leases for the Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations to independent operators who have ideas about how to repurpose them. The workers, who asked not to be named for fear of victimisation, said they wanted to be deployed to other, functioning depots. “We are getting paid for sitting and sleeping. For 10 years you just come to eat and sleep. At 8am we drink tea, at 12pm we eat and at 4pm we go home. That is our daily job. We play morabaraba and cards,” said one of the frustrated employees. Another worker said he felt they had been reduced to serving as security guards at the station. The two stations cost the city R300m a year, which includes staff and maintenance. Brink said the two power stations had fallen into disuse partly because of the high cost of stockpiling coal for them, a lack of planning for the future and the need for significant capital investment. He said the city would prepare an energy indaba at which it would take requests for proposals about the stations and solicit requests for information on independent clean energy generation.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Shonisani Tshikalange at SowetanLive
- Read too, Staff at Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations say they fear for their jobs, at EWN
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page