Community empowerment resulting from the multi-billion construction project at the Medupi Power station should be improved for the benefit of the people of Waterberg and Lephalale.
This is according to Mr Peter Maluleka, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises. “This Committee wants to ensure that wherever state-owned companies operate, community members in that particular area benefit from investment opportunities,” he added.
The Chairperson said this during the Committee’s oversight visit to Lephalale in Limpopo. The Committee was there to find out how billions of rands that government gave to Eskom for the construction of Medupi power station were benefitting people of Liphalale.
According to Mr Roman Crooks, Eskom’s General Manager at the Medupi Power Station, of the 16 000 plus workers on their plant, 48% was labour sourced from Lephalale and surrounding areas. In total, 95% of people employed were South Africans. Foreign nationals employed at this plant were people with scarce skills. Mr Crooks added that their plan was for these foreign nationals to transfer skills to locals as part of their skills development plan.
Eskom also told the Committee that they were involved in improving the infrastructure around Lephalale. “We have committed ourselves to renovating pre-schools, building of houses and health care facilities, including the improvement of roads in this area.”
But Eskom’s report was met with mixed reactions by representatives from Traditional Leaders, South African Civic Organisation, Organised Labour, Lephalale Business Forum, Youth Council and the Council as these stakeholders felt that more could be done. They claimed that local people are not ideally empowered.
The Committee encouraged all stakeholders and Eskom to have constant engagements in order to ensure that these issues were ironed out. The Committee has undertaken to monitor progress regarding the issue. To this end, it has requested Eskom to provide quarterly progress reports. “We are impressed with the progress of the project to date. When we were here two years ago, this project looked impossible, but now we are hopeful that if everybody pulls in the same direction, the project will meet its completion target of 2017,” said the Committee.
Meanwhile, the Committee will tomorrow, 6 June check progress at the Khusile Power Station in Witbank, Mpumalanga. The community of Witbank will also share their views on the impact this project has on their lives.
For media inquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Temba Gubula
Parliamentary Communication Services
Cell: 078 735 8809
Tel: 021 403 8307
E-mail: tgubula@parliament.gov.za
Communities should benefit more
