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Power Outage: Industrial action looms as South Africa’s labour unions reject pay rise

Published

2 years ago

April 22, 2023

Representatives of South African Labour have revealed that they have rejected a 3.75% pay rise offer from South Africa’s state power enterprise, Eskom Holdings, as it is below the rate of inflation.

Eskom, which is South Africa’s primary electricity supplier, generates approximately 90% of the electricity used in the country, and approximately 30% of the electricity generated on the African continent, but has been struggling over poor financing.

The country has lately had challenges with its electricity supply which has forced Eskom to announce the previous series of power rotation arrangements.

Eskom has been instituting rolling blackouts of approximately 10 hours per day as it struggles to fulfill electricity demand, and is under pressure from unions to increase wages by 15% above the country’s current inflation rate.

Data from Statistics South Africa (SSA) on Wednesday showed consumer inflation rose from 7.0% in February to 7.1% year-on-year. It rose from 0.7% to 1.0% on a month-on-month basis.

The three largest unions at Eskom, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), and Solidarity, stated they intended to sign a two-year pay agreement “so that we can have an opportunity to stabilise the power utility.”

NUMSA deputy general secretary, Mbuso Ngubane claimed that the public fury brought on by recent blackouts had created a new threat and left workers “vulnerable out there in communities,” compensating them for the risk of working with high voltages.

Negotiations will resume on May 8, and industrial strikes could follow if the power outage continues.

Related Topics:Eskom Featured South Africa

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IMF mission concludes 4th loan program assessment in Egypt

Published

9 hours ago

November 22, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Following the completion of a recent visit to Egypt, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that its mission had achieved significant strides in policy talks aimed at concluding the fourth review of the IMF loan program.

The review is the fourth in Egypt’s most recent 46-month IMF loan program, which was authorised in 2022 and increased to $8 billion this year following an economic crisis characterised by high inflation and chronic foreign exchange shortages. It may unleash more than $1.2 billion in financing.

Along with reaffirming its commitment to maintain a flexible exchange rate system, the IMF stated that Egypt “has implemented key reforms to preserve macroeconomic stability,” including the unification of the currency rate that facilitated imports.

Earlier on Wednesday, Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Cairo has asked the IMF to modify the targets for the programme not only for this year, but for its full duration, he added without giving more details.

“Discussions will continue over the coming days to finalize agreement on the remaining policies and reforms that could support the completion of the fourth review,” the IMF added in its statement.

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Kenya seeks $750m from World Bank, obtains $200m from AfDB— Official

Published

2 days ago

November 20, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The head of debt management for the finance ministry told Reuters that Kenya had obtained a $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and was negotiating a fresh $750 million loan with the World Bank.

After being forced to abandon proposed tax rises costing more than 346 billion shillings ($2.68 billion) in June due to fatal demonstrations, the East African nation’s administration, which has been grappling with significant debt, has been frantically seeking fresh funding.

The Finance Ministry’s public debt management office director general, Raphael Owino, told Reuters that the IMF’s October clearance of the seventh and eighth reviews, which opened the door for a $606 million loan tranche, had aided the ministry’s talks for more loans.

“The World Bank is coming on board, riding on the back of IMF receipts,” Owino said. “The AfDB is already on board.”

The discussions for more assistance, which came under the World Bank’s “Development Policy Operations” (DPO) with the government, were confirmed by a representative at the organization’s Kenya office.

“The amount of the current (loan) is yet to be determined. The amount will also depend on the implementation of the policy reforms agreed upon,” the spokesperson told Reuters, adding that past DPO loans averaged about $750 million.

In May, the World Bank approved the latest round of DPO loans, totalling $1.2 billion.

According to a statement made last month by Finance Minister John Mbadi, Kenya has set a foreign borrowing goal of 168 billion shillings for the fiscal year ending in June 2025.