By John Ikani
South Africa’s state-owned power company Eskom says it has signed a deal with striking workers that could see an end to power cuts which have crippled the country over the last week.
Known as “load shedding”, the blackouts increased last Tuesday to up to six hours a day to avoid catastrophic grid collapse – a move Eskom blamed on the strike.
The workers had been demanding a 10% pay rise – and three unions had now agreed to a 7% deal, the company said on Twitter.
#Eskom is pleased to confirm that the wage agreement has been signed at the CBF between Eskom and the 3 recognised labour unions – NUM, NUMSA, Solidarity. The agreement entails an increase of 7% for Bargaining Forum employees, and an increase of R400 pm on the housing allowance pic.twitter.com/v9iJj8Lak4
— Eskom Hld SOC Ltd (@Eskom_SA) July 5, 2022
But Eskom warned that power supplies would still take time to recover.
“As a result of the strike, maintenance work has had to be postponed, and this backlog will take time to clear,” it said.
