Eskom’s Koeberg station manager, Velaphi Ntuli, said in spite of the challenge of a skilled workforce leaving the country looking for greener pastures, Eskom has a “workforce plan in place to develop and train leaders.” Picture: Henk Kruger/Independent Newspapers
In marking 40 years of safe operations at the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, and the country being free of load shedding for 118 days, Eskom said the power utility is now focused on honing local skills to develop young leaders for a future of skilled nuclear workforce.
Eskom’s Koeberg station manager, Velaphi Ntuli, said in spite of the challenge of a skilled workforce leaving the country looking for greener pastures, Eskom has a “workforce plan in place to develop and train leaders”.
This as Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa visited the nuclear station yesterday as the site celebrated 40 years of safe nuclear operation delivering 1800MW of reliable base load power to South Africa.
Ramokgopa congratulated the leadership and management of the plant for its safe operations and said that they were now working hard for the licence to operate Unit 2, also for a further 20 years.
The nuclear station was recently granted a licence to operate Unit 1 for an additional 20 years.
“It’s a momentous occasion and a celebration that we could get an extension of life at Koeberg Unit 1 and also the 40 years of operation with an impeccable safety record.”
“The (team) has done exceptionally well to convince the regulator that they have done everything possible to meet all the requirements for extension of life and they are working very hard for the same to be achieved for Unit 2.
“It is something to be celebrated as we are on the back foot all the time, but thanks to the leadership, Eskom is turning the corner and it will be restored to its former glory ... I am more than confident of that,” said Ramokgopa.
On the honing of local skills, Ntuli said: “If you look at how Koeberg was built in the early ’70s, it was a combination of migrant and local skills, but since the mid-2000s we have been working (with) mostly local skills and all South African skills that we have in the country. So these local skills are people that we have developed in the country because there is not another institution next to us that has that skills.
“Yes, we did lose some of our colleagues, highly competent colleagues that we had trained, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but we’ve always had a partner to deal with skills.
“We have looked at the retirements that we are projecting and also look at our needs and we have more of a buffer of people that we are training into the organisation.
“Most of our development we do here so that we don’t get any ready skills that are coming into the organisation ... so together with that and our original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) we are able to (elevate) the issue of skills successfully,” said Ntuli.
Eskom chairperson Mteto Nyati said they have a workforce plan for the next 20 years to “develop leaders and technical skills”. Meanwhile, probed on the recent court judgment on Peter Becker’s dismissal from his position as director of the board of the National Nuclear Regulator (NNR), Bheki Nxumalo, group executive for generation, said they would be “guided by the legal processes”, but they had no contention over the ruling which stated that Becker’s dismissal was “arbitrary and irrational”.
Nxumalo said they could not confirm when Becker’s position would be filled as his term had come to an end.
Cape Times
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