The trade union Solidarity says the ailing state power utility Eskom wants to get rid of another 500 white male workers by 2025.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the union says this was according to Eskom’s latest “race plan” for 2023 to 2025.
Solidarity has now asked Eskom for a moratorium on race-based appointments at Eskom to help address the power crisis.
The union said there is a need in South Africa to deploy the best possible skills in jobs regardless of race
“Eskom has learned nothing from this. It is still pursuing its race programme, even in the dark,” Solidarity Chief Executive Dr Dirk Hermann said.
SOLIDARITY IS PLANNING A COURT CASE
He added that they are preparing a court case to exempt Eskom from black economic empowerment requirements.
According to Solidarity, black economic empowerment is costing Eskom billions. A tariff increase would not have been necessary if Eskom did not have to meet all the racial requirements involved in procurement.
“We do not see in the plan that Eskom is making plans to address its skills challenges. This plan is all about skin colour at the various job levels,” Herman said.
“Eskom has just announced a huge tariff increase, but instead of addressing its skills problem, Eskom is only paying attention to race targets. These absurd race targets come amid the fact that power station maintenance is one of Eskom’s major challenges,” Herman said.
“Eskom should now focus on one thing only, and that is not race but power. South Africans do not need race targets but light in their homes and power for their businesses. Targets such as these discourage existing staff members and imply that competent white persons cannot apply for jobs to help solve the crisis. Also, it makes it nearly impossible to appoint some of the hundreds of experts who have offered their services to assist Eskom because they have the wrong skin colour.”Dirk Herman
source: thesouthafrican
