How tiresome it is to be writing about Eskom again. How long does this have to go on? Who is to blame? It just seems to be endless.
Despite the endlessness of this debacle, however, it's important to note that a big change has taken place this week. The warning by Eskom that it is moving from Stage 4 to Stage 6 for the first time since 2019 is not because of wet coal, maintenance issues or State Capture.
The difference is that this time, the cause is industrial unrest. And there is a difference about the industrial unrest because it's illegal. Eskom employees are defined as essential workers, since electricity is an essential service.
On the surface, it seems like just another of SA's huge number of industrial actions. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) is demanding a 12% wage increase, while the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has demands ranging between 8% and 10%. Solidarity is demanding 5.9%. Eskom has revised its offer upwards of 5%.
But there is much more going on here.
Numsa 'shop steward'
My colleague Ed Stoddard reported last week about someone Numsa described as a "shop steward" at one of...
