Eskom to keep the lights on amidst workers’ threats of ‘total shutdown’

Residents are urged to take a deep breath as the ‘Eskom Armageddon’ announced by a number of community groups on social media is a hoax. This is according to Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe.

The message making the rounds on Facebook claims that the power giant will switch off all power leaving the entire country in ‘Darkville’ on Thursday, 14 June.

Phasiwe has refuted the claim saying that no load shedding will take place on Wednesday or Thursday.

“These rumours are exactly that, rumours. They have absolutely no basis at all. As a matter of fact, Eskom has been running its power optimally for three years without load shedding and that’s the plan going forward.”

Phasiwe added that the power utility was aware of the looming strike and assured that everything was under control.

Some workers affiliated with trade unions National Union of Mines (NUM) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will be embarking on a strike over salary increases.

NUM released a statement saying that they were “disgusted by the brutal arrogance shown by the black majority led by Eskom”.

They called for a national shutdown of electricity supply and the action is set to occur on national, regional and branch level.

Eskom says its financial woes does not allow for increases but some workers are not having it.

“We are aware though that there are some members that are going on strike on Thursday but Eskom does have contingency measures to make sure that we continue to operate our system and making sure that we keep the lights on.”

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