Eskom audit found 16,000 staff too many and 'govt said ok, don't touch them'

Eskom's new spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha acknowledges the power utility's workforce is bloated.

Once the power utility's biggest critic, now Eskom's new spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha chats to Kieno Kammies about load shedding.

The first thing to acknowledge is that we regret all of this inconvenience that this load shedding is causing to the economy and to the people of South Africa.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Spokesperon - Eskom

We are doing everything we can to get our equipment back to good working order so as to deliver electricity a lot more sustainably than we are at the moment.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Spokesperon - Eskom

He reminds us that much of the infrastructure is over 40 years old.

What we know as Eskom is that we have not always done the right thing when it comes to our infrastructure. We are now going back to basics.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Spokesperon - Eskom

Where does the blame lie?

Eskom has indeed had a lot of people that should never have been here, and indeed many people in the government, that should never have been there.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Spokesperon - Eskom

The consequences of those appointments is the damaged infrastructure, he suggests.

Is Eskom's workforce bloated?

Mantshantsha says after the board changed in 2018, and many of those fingered for mismanagement or wrongdoing were axed or resigned, Eskom had a thorough look at the organisation's make-up.

The outcome was that as Eskom, we alone are not able to service this debt of R450 billion. We need the government to come in and pitch in some money.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Spokesperon - Eskom

This resulted in Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni allocating R69 billion of the budget in 3 installments per annum, he says.

The staff audit outcome was that Eskom had 16,000 people more than is needed, says Mantshantsha.

The government said ok, don't touch them. Focus on the power stations.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Spokesperon - Eskom

The final call comes from the shareholder in all businesses, he says.

And in this case, the shareholder is the government.

Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Spokesperon - Eskom

Listen to the interview below:

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