Eskom engineer exodus

surface

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This is the funny part, you keep reading about this brain drain but the so called "brains" are getting paid north of 1.5M for the last 2 decades.

There are still plenty of "van Merwe's" which are Chief Engineers and Corporate Specialists at Eskom, certainly they must be the reason Eskom is still generating power - inconsistent as it may be - it has to be, there is no other explanation right...
How is this possible? The ones who have not been genocided don't have jobs due to BEE. Unless the argument is that working at Eskom is not a job. In that case, it makes sense.
 

R13...

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Still defending BEE and low work ethic and low education standards
Would you show the posts defending it? People are just responding to the racism thinly coated as criticisms of employment equity.
 

grok

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This is just a reminder that an estimated 45 additional engineers might have left Eskom since you started reading this thread..
 

TheMightyQuinn

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How is this possible? The ones who have not been genocided don't have jobs due to BEE. Unless the argument is that working at Eskom is not a job. In that case, it makes sense.
Making stuff up again....trying to stay relevant?
 

TheMightyQuinn

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Go to Megawatt Park and go visit the CoE and Group Technology sections...

come now...

PM your personal details and ID number I will arrange access for yourself?
Don't worry...I'll just use my own access card that De Ruyter gave me.
 

Neptuner

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In October last year, Eskom COO Jan Oberholzer said he was “absolutely horrified” by the number of experienced staff lost at the Koeberg nuclear power station.

He said what was particularly alarming was that Eskom employees were prepared to resign without having alternative employment.

“After resigning, they get opportunities to go to Europe or the Middle East,” Oberholzer said, showing the demand for their skills.

He said the loss of skills and experience is a significant challenge for Eskom.

.@Eskom_SA‘s COO Jan Oberholzer speaking today on the loss of skills at Koeberg.
Scary. Capetonians won’t be sleeping well.
The nuclear power plant is only 30km up the coast. pic.twitter.com/oKDI835M92
— Anton Eberhard (@AntonEberhard)
October 25, 2021

CONTEXT: these employees are resigning as their CV's are flagged when it states currently employed at Koeberg. Suppose to be a tactic to retain skills but eventually causes employees to become disgruntle and set their minds abroad. Hence they resign without an employment opportunity waiting, clearly whomever wrote this article lacks investigational skills. Also many Koeberg employees are leaving due to huge hikes in salaries abroad. Nuclear is nuclear...remains very disciplined otherwise you lose your license to operate.

Jan must stop talking k@k and allow the "brain" drain process to continue with him leaving if he can't retain skills.
 

wimares

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Jan 31, 2021
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Fact of the matter is that a developing economy needs to reduce dependence on farming, mining etc. in order to advance. This said economy needs to include and migrate to high tech industries (why have are you surfing this website? To improve your farming methods? :) ). For this we need electricity, like the ICU patient on a ventilator. So, we need skilled people worth their salt in Eskom, irrespective of race, colour and creed. The current labour laws, being one sided, are not promoting this, sorry to say. BTW, the white/ black racism thing is in your face and abused by the press for sensation purposes. Did you know that black on black racism is by far worse? I lived through the so-called faction fighting on the mines and it is ruthless violence in overdrive.
 
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Truth is that there are very few engineers that make the grade. A degree simply does not cut it - the paper is worthless without experience. If all the experienced people / engineers leave, there will be no continuity, and the system will collapse. Its just a matter of time.
Then the added issues of "jobs for pals" and nepotism makes things worse.
One cannot erase 25 years of corruption in one swoop.
My 35 years working has taught me that an engineer is not worth much until he has 8-10 years experience. But as qualified and experienced people are in such high demand, they seldom last more than 3-4 years in any position these days. The days of people working for 20 years plus for a single company are long gone.
So you have a perfect storm - with little to no hope of it getting resolved without any major intervention.
We have an organization with a massively overloaded ballast and no captain or capable crew who can steer through these rough times - heading for disaster.
The present "captain" is forced to navigate this ship without any instruments and both hands tied behind his back - how can it stay afloat?
 

rh1

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The article writer sure loves to create fear.

Even if there is no engineers on site and Koeberg breaks down so bad it will simply shutdown assuming those in charge did not disable all safety features because the buttons were white or some sht.
As someone who live within 20kms as the crow flies. I hope this is the case.
 

rh1

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This article was incredible racist and quite difficult to read. The implicit bias towards skilled staff being ony white staff is so reminiscent of discriminatory speech and a it affirmative action (that assists 90% of the population) is so cowardly of the "staff writer". Ppl are leaving eskom. because of negelctful eskom leadership which has been run by white men in the last year. Call it what it is and stop writing bull **** for clickbait.
Welcome.
So it is the white person fault? No other reason? I will give you a hint: A-N-C. They have literally being destroying the country brick by brick.

I do however agree with you (at least that what I think you implied) that there is no reason why a black engineer cannot be as good or better than a white engineer.

And I suspect it is all colours who are leaving - because the ones with the scarce skills will be poached, the one without these skills or with skills that are not so scarce will remain.
 

Major Boredom

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What is happening at Eskom is what happened at Telkom.
Telkom : From +-70000 employees down to +-7000
Speaking from experience Telkom used to have intakes of 1000+ new engineers every year. A lot of those found their way into companies outside Telkom.
Treat people like **** and they will find better places to be. A lot are leaving the shores because of lack of jobs locally. .
This is a ton of talent, skills, training and experience that is not longer available which is not only limited to white engineers.
Both Eskom and Telkom used to be the premier training places and used to have dedicated training programs for their respective types of engineers which were at world class standards, so even the base for training new engineers has been decimated.


 
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R13...

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What is happening at Eskom is what happened at Telkom.
Telkom : From +-70000 employees down to +-7000
Speaking from experience Telkom used to have intakes of 1000+ new engineers every year. A lot of those found their way into companies outside Telkom.
Treat people like **** and they will find better places to be. A lot are leaving the shores because of lack of jobs locally. .
This is a ton of talent, skills, training and experience that is not longer available which is not only limited to white engineers.
Both Eskom and Telkom used to be the premier training places and used to have dedicated training programs for their respective types of engineers which were at world class standards, so even the base for training new engineers has been decimated.


Eskom have increased head count unlike Eskom. And Telkom were an employment agency back in those good old days. When competition came aknocking the realities of capital markets hit them they had to rationalise and keep going as they downscaled.
 

rh1

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Aug 5, 2011
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What is happening at Eskom is what happened at Telkom.
Telkom : From +-70000 employees down to +-7000
Speaking from experience Telkom used to have intakes of 1000+ new engineers every year. A lot of those found their way into companies outside Telkom.
Treat people like **** and they will find better places to be. A lot are leaving the shores because of lack of jobs locally. .
This is a ton of talent, skills, training and experience that is not longer available which is not only limited to white engineers.
Both Eskom and Telkom used to be the premier training places and used to have dedicated training programs for their respective types of engineers which were at world class standards, so even the base for training new engineers has been decimated.


I remember sitting in a Board Meeting (No I was not a senior employee at the time- just had to present something) and they were talking about the scarce artisan/technical skills and the CEO said that back in the day,, the Parastatals were the training organisations for all these type of skills which companies would then take on. As these Parastatals went downhill, this created a shortage of these skills in the market as they were not training these skills anymore. Just think if the ANC did nothing to these organisations except encourage them to continue training where could South Africa be now.
 
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