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Friday , March , 29 2024
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Medupi success signifies workers commitment to end electricity crisis

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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) would like to express its appreciation to workers, particularly our members at Eskom’s Medupi coal-fired power station in Limpopo. 

The workers worked tirelessly to ensure the first electricity supply from the power station is able to flow into the national grid, mitigating the current national electricity crisis.

It remains the view of the NUM that for a long time workers’ voices at Eskom are being suppressed and their experiences and knowledge are being relegated to the gutter.

In most of the time, particularly during the construction phase of Medupi Power Station, workers were made to work extra shifts to compete with time as the power utility realised it was four years behind its original schedule.

The Unit 6, which is the first of Medupi’s six 800 MW units, was due to deliver first power to the grid by the end of 2013.While we have noted the excitement that comes with the latest Medupi development, we are reminding Eskom management that unfortunately workers cannot celebrate with them as long as they are being treated as private properties. Eskom is considered an essential service and  the law prohibits  workers from striking.

We have observed the sustained attempts by Eskom to undermine labour as an important stakeholder at the company. The NUM has made several attempts to sensitize the entity `s leadership about these concerns but to no avail.

The NUM reiterates its initial position to push for a Save Eskom Campaign. Part of the campaign will be to ensure that the voices of the workers are embraced in any turn-around 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.

As the NUM, we hope that Medupi Power Station will bring some stability to the power grid as the country is facing serious electricity crisis.

For more information, please contact: 

Livhuwani Mammburu: Acting NUM National Spokesperson: 083 809 3257
Luphert Chilwane: NUM Media Officer: 083 809 3255

Address:
7 Rissik Street.
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Johannesburg  2001
 
Web: www.num.org.za  
Twitter: @Num Media    

Source Url: http://www.num.org.za/News/tabid/91/entryid/152/medupi-success-signifies-workers-commitment-to-end-electricity-crisis.aspx
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About Us
The National Union of Mineworkers was founded in 1982.

Its birth was facilitated by comrades Cyril Ramaphosa who rose to be its first General Secretary, James Motlatsi who turned to be its first President, and Elijah Barayi who became its Vice President and later the President of Cosatu in 1985 when the federation was formed. porn