NUM, SACP march against Eskom privatisation and tariff hikes

By Thapelo Molefe

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Western Cape took to the streets of Bellville on Saturday, leading a joint protest march against Eskom’s unbundling and electricity tariff hikes, which they described as a “backdoor privatisation” of the national power utility.

Hundreds of workers, union members, and activists gathered outside Eskom’s offices and the Department of Employment and Labour, calling for the utility to remain fully state-owned and for electricity to be treated as “a public good, not a commodity.”

The organisations handed over a memorandum of demands to Eskom, calling for the reintegration of the National Transmission Company of South Africa into a single, vertically integrated Eskom, the immediate halt of all privatisation efforts in state-owned enterprises, and the reversal of recent tariff hikes.

NUM President Phillip Vilakazi, who led the march, said the union would oppose any