Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has called on all parties involved in the Eskom wage dispute to allow time for the negotiations to succeed.

Gordhan noted that a continuous supply of electricity was in everyone’s best interest and urged all parties to desist from violence, intimidation or the disruption of coal deliveries to power stations.

The Minister’s comments came on Thursday evening as Eskom announced that the power supply was constrained as a result of industrial action and that it was forced to implement load shedding.

Department engaging labour unions

According to Gordhan the Department of Public Enterprises is making arrangements to engage other labour unions on the wage dispute, including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).

Workers embarked on lunchtime pickets on Thursday after the power parastatal earlier this week announced that there would be a 0% wage increment.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and NUMSA on Tuesday rejected the utility’s wage offer of 0%. Unions, who are demanding a 15% wage increase, staged pickets in response to the 0% increment.

The Minister, departmental officials and Eskom Board members on Wednesday met with the leadership of Cosatu at their invitation.

The board’s responsibility to determine wage increases

At the meeting, Gordhan explained the current challenging environment, including the contraction in economic growth in quarter one of 2018 and lower growth projections for 2018, and that government does not have the money to continuously bail-out State-owned companies.

Gordhan said it is the responsibility of the Eskom Board to determine what kind of wage increase Eskom can offer its employees, within the framework of the board’s fiduciary responsibilities.

“The Minister is in no position to instruct the Board on this issue,” the Department of Public Enterprises explained, adding that the Minister has offered to convene an information-sharing session between Eskom and Cosatu so that the company’s financial position is understood and taken into account by all parties.