South Africa: Eskom Employs Engineers on Solidarity's List - South African News Briefs - September 23, 2022

EskomSouthAfrica, @MYANC/Twitter, AfDB, Mike Powell/Wikimedia Commons
Eskom head office, Ace Magashule, top right, AfDB head office, SABC head office (file photo).
22 September 2022
allAfrica.com
By Esther Rose

Cape Town —  

Update as at 16h30 SAST

Eskom Employs 18 Engineers on Solidarity's List, Load Shedding Reduces

Eskom has appointed 18 people from Solidarity's list of 300 skilled engineers. This list was given to Eskom and Public Enterprises in August this year, eNCA reports. Solidarity's Morné Malan says more experts on that list need to be recruited and are still willing to help. He said, "just let everything else to the side we've got the solutions, we've got the plan and list of the best of the best." The country has been plunged into Stage 6 load shedding for the past week with power cuts of up to 6 hours daily. Eskom has announced that load shedding will be reduced for this weekend. Starting on Saturday, load shedding will reduce  to Stage 4 at 05:00am. A further reduction to Stage 3 will be implemented from 05:00am on Sunday until 05:00am on Monday.

Ace Magashule, 10 Co-Accused Back In Court, Case Postponed

Suspended ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule, his ten co-accused and five companies, are expected to return to the Bloemfontein High Court today for a pre-trial hearing, SABC News reports. They face over 70 counts of corruption, fraud and money laundering linked to a 2015 asbestos tender amounting to R255 million. Magashule insists that the charges have been brought to tarnish his image.

African Development Bank offers South Africa a Solution to Speed Up Green Energy Initiatives

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has suggested a plan that will help the country use the U.S.$8.5 billion (about R150 billion) in climate financing pledged by some of the world's richest nations - U.S., UK, Germany, France - to raise more funds, TimesLive reports. The plan is to help South Africa - the 13th largest producer of greenhouse gases - to cut its reliance on coal, used to generate more than 80% of its electricity. According to a study released in May 2022, the country will need U.S.$250 billion (about R4.4 trillion) over the next three decades to fund the closing down of coal-fired power plants and develop green energy sources and an expanded electricity grid.

Strike Over Wage Dispute Looms at SABC

Unions representing SABC staff will in the next 14 days engage their members across the country to finalise where workers will be picketing over wages,  SABC News reports. The Broadcasting, Electronic Media and Allied Workers Union (BEMAWU) and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) have met the SABC under the auspices of the CCMA at Auckland Park in Johannesburg. The meeting between unions representing  SABC  staff started this morning and was chaired by CCMA commissioner Dudu Madubanya.

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