Statement in support of NUM demonstrations to Eskom

Thursday, 12 March 2026:- The South African Communist Party (SACP) welcomes ongoing protests by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) against the government programme to implement unbundling of Eskom as an entity.

As the SACP, we offer our full and unconditional solidarity and support to the NUM in this important action.

The ransacking of Eskom by the government through its unbundling, as announced in the state of the nation address, represents the most profound act of the state to undermine one of the most important state-owned entities.

Contrary to poetic language used by different spokespersons of government in different podiums, the unbundling of Eskom represents nothing else but the most direct route to its privatisation.

Amidst the visible medium-term stabilisation of Eskom, the government should strengthen the company in its current public organisational form rather than reversing this positive trend by unbundling it and creating conditions for its sale to the highest bidder. This action represents the worst form of liberal policy action of the government in the modern history of the Republic of South Africa.

As a matter of principle, the provision of energy is too important a national need to be relegated to profiteering sections of society. The unbundling of Eskom, similar to all privatisation schemes, threatens the jobs and conditions of service for workers in the entity.

As we have repeatedly stated, these government actions advance an overarching agenda of the executive to implement a cross-cutting liberal policy personified through Operation Vulindlela. No reasonable argument can be made to justify these actions; neither their substance, urgency nor suitability to the national energy needs. These decisions are nothing but the ideological imposition of liberal policy as dictated by international capital and represents our submission to these imperialist interests.

In support of the national protest by the NUM through its various marches, we also call for the immediate cessation of the unbundling of Eskom to protect it and ensure its sustainability as well as the protection of jobs. Any action to the contrary only risks creating and deepening the existing crisis of energy injustice.