Pravin Gordhan lies about Eskom wage settlement

South Africa's Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan said while protest disruptions at Eskom operations had plunged South Africa into stage 6 load shedding, his department and Eskom were hopeful that workers would report for duty on Wednesday.

In a statement issued on Tuesday evening, Eskom said after a "productive" meeting between the utility and union leadership, it could confirm that it had agreed in principle to a way forward with labour unions during wage talks at the Central Bargaining Forum on Friday.

Gordhan also aid a wage settlement was reached and requested unions to ensure that their members return to work on Wednesday.

However, Numsa and the National Union of Mineworkers said there was no agreement and demanded that Gordhan withdraw his statement immediately.

In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the unions said "an offer was tabled which members are engaging on".

Eskom workers went on an unprotected strike last Tuesday to demand better wages.

Eskom reached a deadlock in talks with unions on June 22 after Numsa claimed that the power utility refused to account for corrupt diesel, coal and independent power producer contracts.

The unions said:

"We will meet on Friday at the central bargaining forum, where we will formally respond to [the offer].

They say that Gordhan is rushing to claim there being an agreement when members have not even looked at the proposal yet.

"We condemn him for his reckless behaviour ... His comments have the potential to collapse this entire negotiation process."

Gordhan, in his briefing, questioned who stands to benefit from disrupting the country's power supply and pleaded with those involved in the strike action to stop, adding that the security cluster would meet to discuss the situation at Eskom.

He said the country was nowhere near total blackout.