After a warning strike, there appears to be some progress in the dispute between workers of South Africa’s public utility Eskom and the management over a new pay structure. The strike pushed South Africa into a Stage 6 load-shedding and negotiations have been ongoing, even as the labour unions suspended the strike until Friday this week. Despite the suspension, Eskom says the strike action has impacted its processes and it could take weeks for normalcy to return to its operations. South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has said that a culmination of factors, including violent intimidation, is responsible for South Africa seeing some of its worst load shedding on record. There have been accusations and counter-accusations on both sides of the divide, with Eskom being accused of walking out of wag negotiations last week. The public utility denied this, saying it tabled a final offer which quarters of organized labour rejected. Ahead of the Central Bargaining Forum scheduled for Friday, Business Edge takes a look at what the issues are, who the players are, what the demands are, and if a resolution can be expected anytime soon.
Helgrad Cronje, the Deputy General Secretary for the Public Sector at Solidarity, one of the unions involved in the wage dispute joins Tolulope Adeleru-Balogun from Pretoria, South Africa.
The day’s edition of Business Edge also includes a spotlight on the forthcoming EU-Nigeria Economic Forum, as well as a feature on the business of recycling and turning waste into wealth.
Watch the full episode above.