As Stage 6 load shedding continues indefinitely, a response to a parliamentary question shows that more than 1,000 vacancies need to be filled at power utility Eskom.
UNDER-fire power utility Eskom is in a race to fill more than 1,000 crucial vacancies by September, with most of the posts in the critical distribution, transmission and generation units.
Last week Eskom introduced indefinite Stage 6 load shedding to offset capacity constraints due to breakdowns at its power units.
While frustration mounts over the power crisis, there was more public outrage after it was announced by the National Energy Regulator of SA that it had approved an 18.65% electricity tariff increase for 2023/2024.
Amid these challenges, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has revealed in response to a parliamentary question from the EFF that Eskom wants to fill the vacancies by September.
Experts have said that the power utility has suffered a “brain drain” from the 1990s, but this has been exacerbated in the past 12 years, with highly qualified engineers pursuing careers abroad or moving to the renewable energy sector.
The Department of Public Enterprises told Parliament that at least 693 posts were to be filled in the company’s distribution unit, a further 383 in generation, and another 198 in the transmission business.
Energy expert Lungile Mashele said doubts remained about Eskom’s ability to fill all the vacancies by September because individuals with specific skills were needed. “Where will they come from? They are looking for people with the requisite experience and skills.”
Mashele said that since 2011 many people had left Eskom and joined the renewable energy capacity sector.
“In the 1990s, Eskom recruited nuclear physics students from universities for its nuclear programme, but when it appeared that this programme was obsolete, many of them left to join banking houses. Now Eskom has a 2030 nuclear programme, but over time it got rid of the nuclear skills it had built up,” said Mashele.
People with the requisite skills and experience knew that certain aspects of Eskom were becoming obsolete and they therefore left for other sectors or to another country, she said. “Even now with the transition from coal to renewable energy, people are packing their bags and leaving.
“Eskom cannot decry a skills crisis it has created for itself. It also must have an environment where there are competitive salaries and people are happy.”
Another expert, Professor Wikus van Niekerk, dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Stellenbosch University, said these were crucial vacancies that needed to be filled by Eskom, including finding replacements for CEO Andre de Ruyter and COO Jan Oberholzer.
De Ruyter resigned on December 14 and this year said he had been the victim of a cyanide poisoning. His last day at Eskom will be March 31.
It has also been reported that Oberholzer will retire in April after more than 30 years’ service.
Van Niekerk said it would be difficult to fill the senior positions.
“When filling positions at that level, it is not going to be easy. It will take at least six months to identify proper candidates. Under normal conditions, September would not be an unrealistic expectation to fill the vacancies, but Eskom is facing abnormal conditions to find suitable and willing candidates.”
Van Niekerk said that after the outgoing CEO said he was poisoned, “some people may be reluctant to work in that sort of environment”.
Van Niekerk said Eskom’s crisis required it to fill the vacancies with haste. “Unfortunately, Eskom is in an irreversible death spiral, like other similar utilities in the world, but ours is taking place quicker.”
Eskom’s woes started when it appointed people without the requisite qualifications and experience, he said.
“Many people were employed, but they had no clue of what was needed or expected. People who could have provided the guidance and mentorship left and are still leaving. Fairly competent people have left and gone overseas.”
Van Niekerk said political interference had been detrimental with “ill-informed and poor policy decisions” affecting the day-to-day operations.
“These decisions flip-flopped every day. This is a national crisis of epic proportions, but no one in the government wants to admit to this.”
