Eskom importing black employees to meet AA targets

Eskom black employees recruited from countries such as the USA and UK to work for Eskom to help Eskom reach its affirmative action targets.

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In terms of a campaign launched by Eskom a few years ago, the plan was to recruit nearly 5000 new employees over a period of five years — about half of these had to be black women.

Solidarity maintains that if these allegations of appointments being abused for the sake of affirmative action targets are in fact true, the electricity supplier has dug a hole for itself.

"South Africa has extremely capable people with years of experience at Eskom, but who have lost their jobs there since 1994. By blindly chasing after targets and importing black employees simply because of their skin colour, Eskom is taking things too far," Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said.

"Not only were the employees lured to the company under false pretences, but Eskom also tried to reach targets in an illegal manner by simply appointing black employees to the positions. This approach does not benefit any South African, black or white, and the company should rather look at developing local expertise," explained Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans.

Kleynhans emphasized that Eskom's attempt to reach affirmative action targets has completely destroyed the company's efficiency. "If suitable, local black employees cannot be found to fill the positions, Eskom cannot ignore suitable white employees,"

"After all, the original purpose of affirmative action is in no way achieved by appointing black foreigners and an urgent investigation should be launched into Eskom's affirmative action appointments to determine who, by right, qualifies for the positions because the jobs were actually earmarked for local employees," Kleynhans explained.