NUM weighs in on Eskom’s woes

Union demands Tsotsi resign or its members will strike

THE NATIONAL Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is calling for Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi to resign or be expelled.

NUM general secretary Frans Baleni said yesterday that the union was also in an advanced engagement process with the essential services committee to allow its members to go on strike to put pressure on Tsotsi to resign.

The essential services committee is a commission established in terms of the Labour Relations Act (LRA).

The NUM, which says workers will use force if necessary to see to the removal of Tsotsi, is engaged in a “Save Eskom Campaign”.

In a press statement, NUM said the divisions within the Eskom board vindicated the union for objecting to Tsotsi’s appointment to the board.

“The NUM feels vindicated when we objected to the reappointment of Tsotsi as Eskom board chairperson.

“We call on the Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, to fire this non-executive chairman operating as an executive chairman. We also urge him to do the right thing to resign before he is removed by force by our members,” Baleni said.

Tsotsi has thus far maintained that there is no crisis at Eskom, even after the firm engaged in load shedding.

Now the focus is on him, after the suspension of four senior executives earlier this month opened a leadership vacuum for which Eskom was downgraded by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s to the BB+, which is the first stage of junk status or subinvestment grade status.

In a meeting on Thursday, all board members unanimously resolved to pass a vote of no confidence in Tsotsi, according to City Press.

The charges reportedly levelled against Tsotsi by his fellow board members included interfering with the work of executives and signing off certain documents on behalf of Eskom, thereby undermining the chief executive and other executive directors.

“Part of the campaign will be to ensure that the voices of the workers are embraced in any turnaround strategy by the government.

“We believe that it will be a grave mistake for workers not to be consulted in generating the improvement of the parastatal,” the union said.

A source within Eskom confirmed yesterday that the board of the power utility was divided, saying it was difficult to have decisions taken or implemented in the current governance climate.

Lionel Adendorf, the spokesman for the minister, and Colin Cruywagen, the department’s spokesman, said the minister