South African business is proposing adopting a Chinese decree that allows companies to run shifts without the need to compensate labour for work outside normal hours.
This was one of several recommendations from a survey conduced by the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry among its members on ways to address the country's power crisis.
Sacci said that they are proposing short, medium and long terms solutions, with the proposal on a shift system being part of the short term solution.
Acting CEO, Peggie Drodskie, says for this they would need trade union by-in.
Medium term solutions proposed by organised business include collecting outstanding debt from municipalities, dealing with electricity theft to maintainence.
Drodskie says among their long terms solutions is the privatision of Eskom.
The full Sacci statement with recommendations are below:
SACCI received a number of proposals that were classified into short, medium and long term solutions. These recommendations were:
1. Immediate (One to three weeks):
a Allow business to operate in shifts without the need to compensate labour for work outside normal hours - some businesses to operate from 08h00 to 16h00, others 16h00 to 24h00 and others 24h00 to 08h00. This was done in China by government decree. We could consider a proclamation.
b. Introduce a three shift system at Medupi and Kusile to speed up their entry into the grid
c. Divide the country into four time zones as a temporary solution with KZN and Mpumalanga business starting and ending hour earlier than usual, moving westwards with central areas operating at normal times, and the far Western Cape and Northern Cape starting and ending an hour later than usual. This can be done voluntarily or by proclamation
d. Because of the impact that load shedding has on economic growth, keep it to residential areas (during the day) and ensure that commerce and industry can continue to operate.
e. Promulgate the ISMO Bill
f. Reassess the categorisation of the power station into A, B and C. Place priority on category A maintenance and get those power stations up to peak capacity even if it means taking out a unit to achieve this. Category B should be the next priority, and category C attended to as the lowest priority
g. Commence with implementation of the priority maintenance
h. Stick to advertised load shedding schedules
i. Convene an Electricity Summit where solutions can be discussed.
2.Medium Term (Four weeks to three months)
a. Get all industries that generate their own power to sell to the grid immediately
b. Deal with electricity theft
c. Collect outstanding debt owed to municipalities by consumers
d. Add to capacity by generating off-shore, using barges off the coast
e. Implement power generation from waste operations by private sector operators and at municipal level
f. Proceed with the implementation of the priority maintenance
3.Long Term
a. Privatise Eskom
b. Invite foreign investors to build power stations - ranging from nuclear to solar to wind generation
c. Investigate municipal funding to come up with a model that reduces the reliance on cross-subsidisation of services from income from electricity.
These proposals were submitted to the War Room and to Eskom on the understanding that it was probable that not all were viable and implementable, depending on circumstances.
One of the suggestions related to the restriction of load shedding to residential areas during the day time.
