POLL | As stage 6 load-shedding looms, should striking Eskom staff be forced to return to work?

While SA prepares for a possible cold and dark night under stage 6 load-shedding, there have been calls for striking Eskom workers to be forced to return to work.

Eskom said on Tuesday there is a “very real risk” of stage 6 load-shedding from 5pm after 10 generation units went offline.

The breakdown crisis has been worsened by labour protests over wages. Eskom is set to meet union leaders again on Tuesday to try to resolve the situation.

The DA called on Eskom to exercise its rights as an essential services provider and interdict the strike action.

“The striking workers are not only interrupting the operations of power generation plants, they are also endangering the life, health and personal safety of the whole or part of the population by increasing the risk of high levels of load-shedding,” the party said.

“In terms of the Labour Relations Act, and through its designation as an essential service provider, Eskom is exempt from giving notice to striking workers on its intention to approach the labour court for an interdict.”

To protect critical infrastructure, the party said Eskom should make a direct application to the court seeking an immediate halt to strike action at its plants.

The calls have been met with questions around the complexity of the task at a time when the country’s power grid is under massive strain. Some people said  employees forced to return to work would embark on a go-slow or not work as required.

The country is experiencing stage 4 load-shedding, requiring up to 4,000MW to be shed from the national grid. Stage 6 would require 6,000MW.

According to Johannesburg ward councillor Tim Truluck, stage 6 load-shedding in the metro “means we will be load-shed 1 x 2 hour and 2 x 4 hour slots a day”.

The possibility of stage 6 load-shedding has revived calls for a national state of disaster to be declared over the outages.

The DA motivated for such a move in parliament earlier this year, arguing it would allow provinces and municipalities that have resources and capacity to generate electricity from private players to do so with more speed and efficiency.

Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan poured cold water on the call. He said there was no need for the declaration because load-shedding was a tool to protect the system from total collapse.

“There should be a distinction between a state of disaster for ‘dramatic effect’ compared to a power system emergency which falls within the purview of the system’s operator. At all times the main imperative is to avoid the total collapse of the grid, as occurred in California and more recently in Texas, US,” said Gordhan.

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