Fedusa accuses Eskom of undermining economy

Rolling electricity blackouts by Eskom undermine national growth, trade union federation Fedusa said on Wednesday.

This was in reaction to an announcement by Eskom on Monday that unscheduled maintenance might mean rolling blackouts across the country in coming weeks to save electricity. The blackouts will be felt by households and businesses.

"An irregular electricity supply is the last problem the domestic economy needs as South Africa tries to move into a state of economic recovery and job creation in 2012," Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) general secretary Dennis George said in a statement.

Eskom spokeswoman Hilary Joffe said on Monday that power outages were possible because of planned maintenance, an increase in unplanned maintenance and an ever increasing demand for power.

"Summer is always a time when we do maintenance and take advantage of lower demand. The maintenance is more this year than previous years as we are tackling a backlog," she said.

Aggravating this were technical problems at generating plants which were cutting supply further.

George said Fedusa would always encourage members and the general public to use electricity sparingly, but the interruptions to the national power grid were unacceptable.

"During our New Growth Path (NGP) strategic discussions, involving organised labour and business, government and the community support for stable and continuous economic growth and job creation are always at the centre of collaborative decision-making and implementation plans."

Disruptions in power supply would negatively affect production and the goals of the NGP, he said.