When Labour Leaves, the Lights Go Out: How Eskom’s Skills Crisis Reflects a Deeper Labour Betrayal
South Africa’s main electricity provider ESKOM Headquarters
Introduction: Crisis by Design.
Eskom, South Africa’s state-owned power utility, is once again battling operational failure; but this time, the crisis is not just about load-shedding or ageing infrastructure. It’s about people. More specifically, it’s about skilled workers who have been driven out, sidelined, or demoralised, leaving the utility hollowed out and directionless.
The collapse of institutional knowledge and technical capacity at Eskom is not simply a product of retirement or cost-cutting. It is the result of a political economy that treats labour as expendable and unions as obstacles, rather than partners in development.
MWU and the Legacy of Technocratic Labour
To understand Eskom’s present-day crisis, one must confront its labour history; especially the role of the Mineworkers Union (MWU). Established in the early 20th century, MWU was a powerful force representing skilled white workers in South Africa’s mining and energy sectors. Deeply embedded in the apartheid system, it championed racially exclusive job reservations and fiercely resisted transformation.
In the post-apartheid era, MWU rebranded as Solidarity, now positioning itself as a union defending Afrikaner rights, but also becoming a vocal advocate for protecting technical skills and institutional integrity, especially in state-owned enterprises like Eskom.
While Solidarity’s political legacy remains divisive, it has consistently raised alarm bells about the exodus of experienced engineers and technicians from Eskom, linking the crisis to political appointments, mismanaged affirmative action, and cadre deployment. In recent years, it has also found unexpected alignment with other unions demanding transparency, meritocracy, and anti-corruption reforms within public institutions.
COSATU and the Paradox of Partnership
Enter COSATU, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, historically South Africa’s largest and most influential labour federation, with over 1.8 million members across sectors including energy, transport, mining, and public services. A founding member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance alongside the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), COSATU has long had direct political access, but that access has come at a cost.
Over the years, critics have accused COSATU of being too entangled with the ANC, compromising its ability to confront state-led mismanagement head-on. But recent years have seen a shift. As Eskom’s crises have deepened, COSATU has increasingly distanced itself from the ANC’s economic direction, publicly opposing the unbundling of Eskom, calling for skills retention, and demanding that the voice of frontline workers be restored in strategic planning.
State Utilities Across Africa: A Shared Crisis
South Africa is not alone. Across the continent, other national utilities mirror Eskom’s decline.
In Nigeria, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), once a pillar of state-led industrialisation, has suffered repeated scandals linked to nepotism, oil theft, and foreign-corporate capture. Despite structural reforms, the marginalisation of trade unions and the outsourcing of skilled jobs have left it bloated, inefficient, and distrusted by citizens.
Similarly, Zambia’s state electricity utility, ZESCO, has faced chronic underperformance, customer dissatisfaction, and international lender interference. Local unions such as the National Energy Sector and Allied Workers Union (NESAWU) have repeatedly criticised management for ignoring worker input, imposing wage freezes, and pushing for privatisation without consultation.
These examples show a pattern: across Africa, technical collapse often follows political interference, while labour, especially skilled and unionised labour is systematically disempowered.
Eskom’s Path to Collapse: What Labour Said All Along
At Eskom, the impact of these dynamics is now impossible to ignore. Mega-projects like Kusile Power Station, once hailed as signs of energy sovereignty, have become symbols of dysfunction, riddled with cost overruns, design flaws, and poor maintenance. These outcomes are not just engineering failures, they are symptoms of systemic worker exclusion.
When experienced technicians and artisans are pushed out, and training pipelines like Eskom’s old technical schools are shut down, the knowledge disappears. When whistleblowers are punished and unionists are labelled as “anti-development,” infrastructure breaks.
Trade unions, including Solidarity and COSATU, have warned that restoring Eskom is not a matter of money alone. It requires respecting the social contract with workers, rebuilding trust, and embedding worker voice into the decision-making processes of public utilities.
Conclusion: Eskom’s Future Lies in Worker Power
The crisis at Eskom is not just technical, it’s political and human. A just energy transition for South Africa will not be possible without repairing trust between skilled workers and management, and investing in the next generation of artisans, engineers, and energy operators.
This means more than slogans. It means a return to workplace democracy, where unions are not threats but partners. It means unbundling corruption, not public ownership. And it means recognising that labour is not a cost to be cut, but the foundation on which all infrastructure stands.