Troubled power State power utility Eskom has denied an online media report that it was on a recruitment drive, even though the job placements are still being advertised on the utility’s website.
In a statement, responding to a local media report, Eskom said it was not hiring any new staff, reiterating that there was no recruitment drive.
“Instead, Eskom is on an active drive to reduce overhead costs through natural attrition and voluntary separation packages offered to managerial staff,” said the company.
The utility recently announced that it had reduced its debt burden to less than R400 billion as it transitions from coal-fired power stations to renewable energy.
Eskom said there was a need to reduce its overhead costs, and to sustainably reduce reduce expenditure.
“This is being done through natural attrition, and in addition, has so far been executed through two rounds of voluntary severance packages offered to managerial level staff over the past two years,” the utility said.
It further added that only critical skills, currently not available from the current workforce will be recruited from outside.
“And this will follow an exhaustive internal search process and the highest levels of governance approvals,” said Eskom’s Group Executive for Human Resources Elsie Pule.
She said this management of costs has resulted in the number of employees (including fixed-term contractors) declining by 4.5% to 42 749 employees in the year ended March 2021, from 44 772 a year earlier.
“This is the second consecutive year employee numbers have reduced, from the 46 665 people employed across Eskom during the year ended March 2019,” said Pule.
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