Public Enterprises Minister, Pravin Gordhan has laid the blame for Stage 6 load shedding squarely with certain Eskom workers who have gone on an unprotected strike. The minister has shown images of workers’ houses that he says were petrol bombed by striking workers.
He’s also showed pictures of cars belonging to Eskom workers that were set alight.
Electricity supply to Eskom workers’ houses was also allegedly tampered with.
A large haul of coal was also dumped across the road at one location.
A woman manager at Eskom also had her tyres slashed.
Gordhan was speaking in a live address to the nation.
Outrage over implementation of stage 6 rolling blackouts
Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) say there has been what they call ‘considerable progress’ in talks around wages with Eskom and that a new offer will be tabled at the Central Bargaining Forum on Friday.
The unions have called on members to give the negotiations a chance. The NUM and Numsa say, in a statement, that they will embark on a consultation process with workers regarding the new offer.
Details of the offer have not been released by the unions. Gordhan says he hopes workers will return to their posts on Wednesday.
