On the back of industrial action by Eskom employees over wage increases‚ the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has warned the power utility not to retrench its members. "We must warn Eskom of dire consequences‚ if it thinks the looting mess created by the Guptas will be corrected by retrenchments of our members. The workers at Eskom are not responsible for state capture‚" said David Sipunzi‚ general secretary of NUM at its annual conference on Thursday in Boksburg. SA experienced load shedding towards the end of last week during the impasse over Eskom’s initial position that there would be no wage increases — a position that it has since revised. Unions are still engaged in wage talks. "We remain resolute that Eskom should remain a public entity and not be available for privatisation. We know with privatisation comes retrenchments. For every mineworker there are five dependants‚ this is according to our investigations. We thank our negotiators for rejecting the so-called 0% increa...

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