Eskom has obtained a court interdict prohibiting striking employees from intimidating those who want to work.
Members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) downed tools on Thursday against a 0% salary hike.
Eskom has also threatened criminal charges against technicians found to be sabotaging the power systems.
Despite most of Eskom workers back at work on Friday, the power utility has warned that the country should brace itself for load-shedding until Friday evening.
In a tweet, Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe says that stage-one load shedding could hit certain areas between 11 am until 9pm.
#PowerUpdate: Eskom has obtained a court interdict which essentially prohibits:
– the intimidation of workers and contractors who are not part of the illegal industrial action;
– the highjacking of coal trucks; and
– the sabotaging of Eskom’s electricity infrastructure. pic.twitter.com/wM2gERnz8P— Khulu Phasiwe (@KhuluPhasiwe) June 15, 2018
The Coal Transporters Forum’s Steve Mokwana says their members started delivering coal to power stations without any intimidation on Friday morning.
“Yesterday we were at a standstill, today power stations are beginning to run. We will see what happens today, we got a message that Hendrina is beginning to receive trucks, Arnot is going to receive trucks.”