- South Africa’s power utility Eskom and its organised labour unions, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and Solidarity, met yesterday in an effort to strengthen relations and for Eskom to share the company’s turnaround strategy.
Eskom’s Acting Group Chief Executive Officer Jabu Mabuza led the meeting today and promised to create fertile ground to allow for unions and Eskom to have mutually beneficial engagements beyond his term as GCEO. “We took the unions through Eskom’s turnaround strategy and agreed that further discussions would take place as we plan and move forward as a collective,” Mabuza said.
“If there is one thing I want to have accomplished when I leave this post in the next 10 weeks, is to have created an environment where Eskom and unions are able to have more frank and robust discussions about the future of Eskom,” he said.
The unions have asked for additional information from Eskom, which we will provide, and have agreed to take the information presented to them, digest it and revert.
The meeting with organised labour kick-starts discussions on Eskom’s turnaround strategy for the future, and will be followed by discussions with other stakeholders.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal