Eskom Returns To Profit As Union Wage Talks Intensify After End Of Load Shedding

A general view of Kendal Power Station, an Eskom coal-fired station in Mpumalanga. Image credit: Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko

Eskom has dragged on Africa's largest economy for years, owing to power cuts and the company's financial troubles, but improved performance from its coal-fired power stations has halted outages and brought the first annual profit in eight years.

The company began talks with three major unions last year and last month offered a pay increase of 5.5%.

That was raised to 6% during a third round of talks last week but was rejected by National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members, union spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said.

The NUM had made a revised demand for 12%, reduced from an initial 15%, far above South African annual inflation that stood at 3.6% in December.

"It's not Eskom management that ended load-shedding (power cuts), it's the workers; and we feel that they must be rewarded for their hard work," Mammburu said.

Irvin Jim, general secretary of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), said his union had also rejected the offer.

"We don't accept the current offer on the table," he said, adding that further talks were scheduled for Thursday.

A third union, Solidarity, declined to comment, citing the sensitive state of negotiations.

An Eskom spokesperson did not immediately respond to Reuters questions.

Eskom, which reached a three-year pay deal in 2023 that increased non-managerial employees' salaries by 7% each year, is seeking another multi-year wage deal.