Cosatu pushes back against calls to unbundle and privatise Eskom

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is pushing back against calls to unbundle and privatize Eskom.

Yet another round of rolling power cuts, which has seen the country hard hit by stage six load shedding in recent weeks, has given way to renewed calls from some quarters for the unbundling and privatization of the country’s power utility.

But on Wednesday, Cosatu said these were “misplaced and missed the point”.

Cosatu said as our greatest economic asset, Eskom couldn’t be handed over to those whose sole motive was to maximise profit.

It said while it agreed the deterioration of the power utility posed a massive risk to our economy, “ideological fantasies of privatization” would not resolve the energy crisis.

In contrast, though, the Inkatha Freedom Party has called for the fast-tracking of public-private partnerships, together with the strengthening of municipal capacity for the distribution of electricity.

It’s also called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to “break his silence” and take the nation into his confidence on the crisis at Eskom, which the party’s described as “spectacularly failing to deliver on its most basic mandate”.

-EWN

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