Brian Molefe, Eskom calls strikers traitors.
Image: BDLive.
The acting Chief Executive Officer for the Eskom, Mr Brian Molefe, has described the workers that are on strike at the Medupi plant as traitors who are bent on destabilizing the country at a time when the company is trying to deal with the crisis of load shedding.
Mr Molefe was speaking to the members of parliament who form what is referred to as the select and standing committees on appropriations on the financial and operational affairs at the power utility. He reiterated that the strike had slowed down the work that was being done in the construction of the Medupi and had resulted in the slowing down of the whole construction programme of the power utility. “We think that strike is actually treasonous because how do a group of people or a union for that matter call an illegal strike at a time when we need to deal with load shedding, which is a national crisis,” said Molefe to the MPs, adding that, “The tactic of the people that are continuing to be on an illegal strike now that the majority of the workers are back at Medupi is to intimidate the majority who are at work.”
Mr. Molefe also revealed to the Members of parliament that work at the Kusile power station had to be stopped at some point in the week as a result of a bomb scare. “There was an SMS where somebody said ‘I’ve planted three bombs at Kusile and they will go off today’, so we had to stop work for many hours. The bomb squad came and searched and they eventually declared the place safe,” he said. He emphasised that it was issues like these that were slowing down the work that was being done by his parastatal. Added to the bomb scare was the shooting that happened in Marapong township in Lephalale in Limpopo on Monday when two people who are workers at the Medupi Plant were shot and wounded. In his speech to parliament, Molefe said that the shooting incident and the bomb scare had both contributed to add to delays that had already been experienced due to the strike action which he went on to describe as treason. “I think it is actually treason. It is criminality of the highest order,” he concluded.
