The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Monday called on Public Enterprises Minister Lynne Brown to fire electricity utility Eskom’s chairperson Zola Tsotsi, as the majority of the board “wants him out”.

The NUM cited media reports, alleging that Tsotsi was interfering in operational matters and taking over executive responsibilities.

"The NUM feels vindicated when we objected to the reappointment of Tsotsi. We urge him to do the right thing to resign before he is removed by force by our members," NUM general secretary Frans Baleni said.

The NUM reiterated the initial position it had pushed for in its ‘Save Eskom Campaign’. Part of the campaign was to ensure that the voices of Eskom employees be “embraced” in any turnaround strategy by government.

“We believe that it will be a grave mistake for workers not to be consulted in generating the improvement of the parastatal,” the union warned.

“[As long] as the workers are pushed to the margins and their experiences and knowledge is relegated to the gutter, as is the case currently, nothing sustainable will emerge out of any intervention. Thus, we urge the Minister to break the tradition of corporate tyranny by consulting with workers at Eskom to get a sense of problems and solutions thereof,” it concluded.