Eskom has denied “media reports” that the company is actively recruiting new employees, saying it is “not hiring any new staff” and that there is “no recruitment drive”.

Eskom said the “reports” that it is looking for new recruits are not true. “Instead, Eskom is on an active drive to reduce overhead costs through natural attrition and voluntary separation packages offered to managerial staff.

“Eskom has on numerous occasions publicly stated the need to reduce overhead costs and to sustainably 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.”

It said 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 Elsie Pule, group executive for human resources, in a statement.

“This responsible 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,” Eskom said. — (c) 2021 NewsCentral Media