POLL | Are Gordhan and Mantashe to blame for stage 6 load-shedding?

As Eskom continues to plunge SA into darkness with power cuts, South Africans are demanding answers about who should take the blame.

The power utility implemented stage 6 load-shedding on Tuesday amid a strike by employees over a wage dispute.

Eskom said the protest caused disruption at its power plants despite three of its 10 generation plants returning to service on Tuesday.

The outages sparked debate over who should take the blame for SA's energy crisis, with some laying it at the feet of energy minister Gwede Mantashe and public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan.

The EFF claimed Gordhan was "avoiding accountability" for Eskom's woes. 

"For Gordhan to blame the rolling blackouts, which are due to no plan to increase energy generation capacity, on protesting workers is pathetic. All South Africans must reject with contempt the attempt by [Eskom CEO Andre] de Ruyter and Gordhan to attribute SA's energy crisis on the legitimate strike by workers at Eskom."

Eskom told TimesLIVE on Wednesday there were "no incidents of protest action".

Spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said the details of a wage offer would be made known on Friday when negotiations resumed. 

National Union of Mineworkers spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said the strike was not sanctioned by the union and it had asked members to “normalise” the situation at power stations as unions and Eskom conclude negotiations.  

“Members are the ones who decided to picket. The only thing we can do is to appeal to them to normalise the situation at power stations while we finalise [the wage talks] or negotiate with Eskom.

“The unions did not sanction the picketing, so if we speak on behalf of members they will ask us who gave us a mandate. That is why we are appealing for our members to normalise the situation while we are negotiating,” he said.

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