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NUM Press Statement, 14 March  2018

NUM to fight the implementation of the IPPs madness


The National Union of Mineworkers  (NUM) welcome and appreciate the ruling made by the Pretoria high court to stop the signing of 27 IPPs power purchase agreements by the Minister of Energy Jeff Radebe. We cannot allow him to perpetuate the stealing of money from the SOEs. The NUM condemn in the strongest terms the use of political office for personal wealth accumulation directly or indirectly.  

The NUM last year embarked on the fight against the IPPs in line with our objectives of protecting jobs in the country. On the 29 of March 2017, the NUM challenged the government to review the implementation of the IPPs with success.  The court action initiated by the two organizations is in line with our objectives. The tweet made by the Minister of Energy on the 12th of March 2018 is a sign that he has lost class consciousness; it is an indication that he is captured by the capitalist forces.

We view this capitalist IPPs deal as a backdoor privatization of Eskom. The plan is to privatize 42% of Eskom by 2030 masquerading as the implementation of clean energy. NUM and COSATU successfully fought against the privatization of Eskom before, we are ready to fight it even now. The Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) if implemented, will compel Eskom to buy Electricity at a higher price while Eskom can produce electricity at a cheaper price. The proposed agreements are nothing but daylight robbery.  This will cause high scale job losses in the energy, mining, transport and all other sectors in the supply chain.

President of the ANC and the country Cyril Ramaphosa announced in Davos that the government will continue with the implementation of IPPs. The NUM does not agree with the implementation of IPPs at the expense of workers.

If ANC led government and Eskom are going to continue with this madness, the NUM will be pushed to a total shutdown. We are going to mobilize all our members and society to revolt against this planned madness called IPPs. We will also embark on legal court action to make sure that this madness does not continue. We will fight until the cows come home. We are guided by the words of Nelson Mandela when he said “If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government.

The most painful thing is that the renewable energy produced by the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) is going to be sold through Eskom. We are saying and we have said that Eskom is a government entity, if the IPP's have got power to generate, let them stand alone and compete with Eskom. We must defend these jobs. If the IPPs have got their own energy, we are not against renewable energy, but we are saying that anyone who has energy must compete with Eskom. Eskom cannot be used to promote people who want to destroy jobs.

For more information, please contact:

Paris Mashego: NUM Energy Sector Coordinator: 079 517 1758
Livhuwani Mammburu: NUM National Spokesman: 083 809 3257

The National Union of Mineworkers
7 Rissik Street.
Cnr Frederick
Johannesburg
Tel: 011 377 2111
Cell: 083 809 3257
Web: www.num.org.za<http://www.num.org.za>
Twitter: @Num_Media
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