The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says its support for the African National Congress (ANC) won’t change despite the recent unhappiness over the unbundling of Eskom.
The labour federation has vowed to seek clarity on government’s intention to split Eskom into three entities, when it meets with President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday.
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Parliament last Thursday, Ramaphosa said the power utility would be split into three companies under Eskom Holdings – to deal with generation, transmission and distribution – in order to make it sustainable.
Cosatu says it will oppose any restructuring at Eskom that would lead to retrenchments.
The decision to split Eskom into three entities was mooted at the 2017 ANC National Conference.
The President’s announcement to on Eskom is seen by many as merely implementing the conference resolution, but Cosatu General Secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali, says nothing much has been said on how this is going to improve the efficiency of the power utility.
Ntshalintshali insists that the president needs to clarify what form the restructuring at Eskom is going to take.
“We don’t know what government hopes to fix on the issue of unbundling. They are not quite clear how unbundling itself is going to make Eskom work better. We are meeting with the president on Monday to have a thorough discussion in terms of what is government thinking about. We don’t believe it’s going to lead to a better working of Eskom. In fact, we are putting conditions that any engagement on the unbundling of Eskom should be underpinned by no retrenchment. The electricity must be affordable and no privatisation, and clean government in dealing with the question of Eskom.”
Cosatu is leading a countrywide protest march against job losses on Wednesday, but President Cyril Ramaphosa has been quick to allay the federation’s fears, saying Monday’s meeting will try to find a workable solution for Eskom that would benefit the nation and protect jobs.
“We want a just transition. I mean the workers that they represent are our people. They are South Africans and we are concerned about the working people, and this is one government that has demonstrated very clearly that the concerns of all South Africans (matter). So, we are going to be able to sit down and say this is the challenge we face and once we get to the grips with the challenge we face, then we’ve got to come with what are the solutions.”
Earlier, Cosatu in Gauteng threatened to withdraw its support for the ANC in the forthcoming elections if the governing party unilaterally goes ahead with its restructuring of Eskom, but Ntshalintshali says, despite their differences with the ANC on the proposed unbundling of Eskom, supporting the ANC in the 8 May polls is a conference resolution that can’t be reversed by a slight irritation.
He says they will campaign for the ANC as they are part of the alliance and have participated in the drafting of the ANC manifesto.
“Our relation with the ANC is not based on one issue, that when we don’t agree therefore we go back and say we need to convene a conference and decide whether to support the ANC. It’s a long thought issue and we debated the issue. We are part of the manifesto and there are number of issues that we have upon in the manifesto and we said, based on that manifesto, we will be supporting the ANC. So, there is no issue that we are going to conference to reverse this decision in the next two or three months. But it should not be regarded in the ANC that Cosatu will be vote for the ANC forever. We are clear in these matters; we will vote and we are mobilising for the ANC for that matter.”
Ntshalintshali says the responsibility for the crisis at Eskom should be put squarely on government for allowing rampant looting and for steadfastly refusing to invest in the power utility with the intention to deliberately run it down and privatise it.
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