Vavi grills Mbeki on power crisis

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki has faced a barrage of questions from trade unions, who accused the government of mismanaging the electricity crisis.

At a presidential joint working group meeting last Friday, labour, business, civil society and youth met Mbeki in Cape Town.

Labour demanded to know the cause of the electricity shortage, including the political and managerial shortcomings that led to the entire country being affected by power cuts.

Labour's beef was that the poor and the workers were being sacrificed in the government's efforts to manage the power crisis.

It proposed that the criteria for power cuts be reviewed and new criteria put in place that would consider not sacrificing the mining sector and retrenching workers.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi told Mbeki: "We should be prepared to review projects with high power-usage and low employment density. The smelters have been identified as a key area of concern."

Labour presented the outcome of discussions held at the national labour policy conference attended by Cosatu, Fedusa (Federation of Unions of SA) and Nactu (National Council of Trade Unions).

Vavi asked Mbeki why the government had failed to invest in new generating capacity 10 years ago when indications were first given that the country would run short of electricity.

"Why have more energy-intensive investment projects like the additional smelter been approved by government when it should have been clear that we were running short of capacity for the economy and the society's needs?

"Why was the first load-shedding managed so incompetently when senior management should have been aware that problems were inevitable and ought to have had a crisis plan ready?" Vavi asked.

"Answering these questions will help to ensure that never again will we have such a huge failure of our governance and managerial systems in a critical infrastructure area."

Vavi also proposed that the government should develop alternative energy sources.

He said labour was prepared to launch a campaign to save electricity and to train its shop stewards on how to save it if the government could reduce demand on an equitable basis and without compromising core development goals.

Vavi called on the government to contribute to new investment in power generation, to shift to solar water heating and compact fluorescent lighting, and promulgate regulations to make energy-saving devices compulsory and to provide subsidies to ensure that the poor were not prejudiced.