Eskom has lashed out against the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for airing its dirty laundry to Members of Parliament about certain concerns it had at the Koeberg nuclear power station instead of raising issues internally.
In April, the portfolio committees on public enterprises and minerals and energy held a joint oversight visit at Eskom’s Koeberg nuclear power station in Cape Town to monitor the replacement of steam generators.
Eskom had, earlier this year, begun work for the replacement of three steam generators on each of the two 920MW nuclear reactors to extend the life of the Koeberg power station for an additional 20 years post its original generation life, which is 31 July 2024.
During the visit, the NUM told committee members that it was concerned about Eskom’s decision to prolong the required maintenance of the steam generator replacement, adding that it suspected shady dealings between Eskom and the French contractor, Framatome.
However, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter today said management had suspended three senior employees after identifying poor project management, inadequate contract management and a lack of financial discipline as being contributory factors towards the project not commencing as scheduled.
De Ruyter said that in the normal course of events, the issues raised by NUM at Koeberg were supposed to have been addressed through the Koeberg Business Unit participative structure.
De Ruyter told the joint committee sitting that it was regrettable that NUM chose not to utilise the appropriate participative structures but “exploit” the presence of parliamentarians at Koeberg.
“I think it’s very important to emphasise that the NUM member in question, who is the grievant, is not only the contract manager for the steam generator replacement but also is the project manager. So the accountability for the delivery of the project very much rests with the individual in question,” de Ruyter said.
“During the meeting of the Eskom generation board dealing specifically with the steam generator replacement project, it became apparent to the board that the project had been extremely poorly managed, that there had been a number of deficiencies in basic project governance control measures.
“The insinuations made by the NUM representative that there is somehow collusion between the executives and the contractor in question, we are not aware of any of this, but if they have any evidence, they are duty bound to raise this through our whistle-blower facility.
“But, purely making embarrassing allegations simply is not enough to absolve a senior manager of accountability for under-performance. It is really quite an unusual situation where a senior manager, when held accountable for non-performance, then uses the offices of a trade union to represent him and not through structures that have been in place for more than two decades. We think it is regrettable, and we would really prefer to settle this matter through existing channels.”
De Ruyter also said that Eskom employees and managers who have been suspended at Koeberg had suffered no prejudice as they were on fully-paid suspension while investigations continue.
NUM Western Cape full-time shop steward Phumzile Mvovo said their member, who is the project leader, Justice Gumede, had been suspended along with two Solidarity members for refusing to pay Framatome R1 billion for work not done.
Mvovo said at least eight investigations had been done on the project, and none of them had implicated any of their members, yet they remained suspended.
“The NUM believes that this suspension is unfair, very discriminatory, and has been advised to assist our members to take the matter to the CCMA,” Mvovo said.
“It is clear that the decision to postpone the project was not made by the project manager. This decision probably led to Eskom losing billions of rand, which could have been avoided.
“It, therefore, begs the question whether this postponement has not been scripted to facilitate payments agreements between executives.
“The NUM is aware and has proof that the GCE agreed to a press statement two weeks prior to the COO making a public announcement that Eskom is deferring the entire project to the entire outage due to Eskom not being ready.”