The story: Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has asked trade union Solidarity to provide a list of people with the necessary technical skills to help government address the skills crisis at Eskom.
The details: On 14 July, Gordhan wrote to the managing director of Solidarity, Dirk Hermann, to thank the trade union for its offer in May this year to mobilise critical skills.
The background: In 2019, the union provided Gordhan with a list of 705 names - consisting of individuals holding a cumulative 731 accredited qualifications, with a combined work experience of more than 500 years - but nothing happened. A total of 30% of the names were engineers, 50% were specialised and skilled artisans, and a further 20% had general skills.