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Miners will provide Eskom with sufficient coal - Sipho Nkosi, CEO Exxaro
In an interview on ClassicFM @ 18:15 on 1 April 2008
[miningmx.com] -- SOUTH African coal mining companies will meet power utility Eskom's call for more coal to deal with the country's power crisis, said Sipho Nkosi, CEO of diversified mining company Exxaro.
"I think the issues on the coal side have been resolved and I think the stock levels at the power stations have improved. I think the biggest issue right now is, of course, the maintenance side on Eskom and I think they're doing quite a lot," said Nkosi in an interview on Classic FM's Classic Business.
Nkosi said he was confident that Eskom will have adequate stock piles of coal by the time winter comes.
A problem, though, may be logistics and how coal is delivered to power stations. Transport companies and South Africa's roads are under pressure as a result of Eskom's increased demand for coal.
Commenting on a separate issue which is a concern in South
Africa, Nkosi said Exxaro together with South African industry in general is battling to find employees with the relevant skills.
"It's an international issue – everyone is looking for skills. So it is a challenge. You find people today, people with talent, and people with skills, easily moving around the world. The world is a stage now – a person could be working for you today, tomorrow he's in the UK, the day after he's in New York. People just move around," said Nkosi.
Nkosi says the challenge is to make sure that the appropriate initiatives are taken and co-ordinated to make sure that the new entrants to the labour pool have the relevant skills. The education system too needs improving with an effort to get more people through matric and completing further education.
Nkosi said there are legacy issues with regard to education and as a result, to a degree, South Africa is playing catch up on education.
"I think the biggest challenge for all
of us is to coordinate all these, and as they were saying in this workshop today, to be able to dot and redirect every effort so that it focuses on something, so that we achieve one thing solidly, because what normally happens is that people move around – you as Exxaro are doing something, someone somewhere else is doing something, government are doing something, and all of us are running around doing one and the same thing, and it's got to be coordinated at some point."
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