Unbundling of Eskom will not result in mass job losses: Analyst

Independent energy analyst, Chris Yellend, says the unbundling of Eskom will not result in mass job losses.

He says it will instead create new opportunities, greater efficiency and fair competition in the energy industry.

This comes after the National Union of Metalworkers Workers of South Africa (Numsa) rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement in his State-of-the-Nation-Address on Thursday night saying it was nothing more than what it termed privatisation through the back door.

President Ramaphosa announced that Eskom would be unbundled into three entities, generation, transmission and distribution under Eskom Holdings.

Yellend says, “I think labour’s position that there will be job losses is wrong. I believe that there are great opportunities with new technologies that are more labour intensive.”

“For example, the renewable energy and gas power sector and also the transfer of excess Eskom personnel, where there’s an excess in the distribution sector into the under resourced and under-capitalised and under-staffed municipal distribution sector.”

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