Eskom remains committed to reduce the number of white employees, especially white engineers, as part of its plans to meet its employment equity targets. This is according to a report in the Rapport newspaper.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago the City Press reported that Eskom was planning to decrease the number of skilled white employees<\/strong><\/a> by 3,389.<\/p>\n According to the report Eskom would have to cut the number of white engineers and managers by 1,081, and decrease the number of white tradespeople by 2,179.<\/p>\n These white staff cuts are needed to comply with South Africa\u2019s strict new provisions of the Equity Act.<\/p>\n Soon after this report Eskom said that it does not have a policy<\/strong><\/a> of retrenching employees based on race.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, a principle of natural attrition has been used when certain positions became vacant,\u201d Eskom said in a statement on 9 March 2015.<\/p>\n On 18 March 2015 Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa added<\/strong><\/a> that Eskom is racing to recruit as many skilled people as possible, regardless of their skin colour.<\/p>\n Responding to questions in the National Assembly, he told MPs he was not aware of so-called \u201cbackroom\u201d, race-based retrenchments taking place at Eskom, though there had been voluntary retrenchments.<\/p>\n However, trade union Solidarity has now revealed that Eskom is looking to actively reducing the number of white employees.<\/p>\n According to Rapport, Eskom is planning to reduce the number of white engineers from 1,786 in January 2015 to 625 in March 2020 \u2013 a reduction of 65%.<\/p>\n The report further said that Eskom is planning to cut the number of white tradespeople from 4,487 to 2,043.<\/p>\n These figures emerged from a presentation by Eskom\u2019s head advisor on transformation Richard Khumalo.<\/p>\n The full report is available in the Rapport newspaper from 22 March 2015.<\/em><\/p>\nMore Eskom news<\/h3>\n