{"id":93934,"date":"2025-12-08T19:25:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved"},"modified":"2025-12-08T19:32:36","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:32:36","slug":"thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of Jobs in South Africa Can Be Saved"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Power utility Eskom says it has finalised a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with smelters in the country, which opens a path to preventing the loss of thousands of jobs in the ferrochrome sector.<\/p>\n

Eskom said it signed the MoU with Samancor Chrome and the Glencore\u2013Merafe Chrome Venture, following engagements with the Minister of Electricity and Energy and organised labour.<\/p>\n

The MoU formalises a joint commitment to \u201cdevelop a sustainable, long-term intervention for the ferrochrome sector\u201d, which has been severely affected by global market pressures and rising production costs.<\/p>\n

As part of the committement, a joint multi-stakeholder task team comprising Eskom, the two producers, and government representatives will be established, with the main focus being on electricity pricing.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the team will develop an intervention that supports industrial competitiveness while ensuring that electricity-pricing solutions do not impose additional burdens on other customers.<\/p>\n

The parties have agreed to present a proposed solution within three months.<\/p>\n

The MoU had to be developed as the smelters started rolling out section 189 retrenchment notices to workers as their operations became to costly to run.<\/p>\n

Glencore announced last week that it would idle its Boshoek and Wonderkop smelters from 1 January, while 2,400 workers were served papers.<\/p>\n

That announcement followed another warning from Samancor Chrome, which recently said it may cut up to 2,496 jobs as it considers closing or shrinking operations.<\/p>\n

Ferrochrome operations blossomed in South Africa in the early 2000s, with the country becoming one of the largest producers in the world.<\/p>\n

However, South Africa lost its global lead to China in 2012 due to Eskom\u2019s unreliable electricity supply and rapidly rising tariffs.<\/p>\n

Eskom noted that Samancor and Glencore\u2013Merafe currently operate under Negotiated Pricing Agreements (NPAs) approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) in October 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese six-year agreements, which took effect earlier this year, fall under the Interim Long-Term Framework issued by the then Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in 2020,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The framework provides qualifying energy-intensive industries with access to more globally competitive tariff structures aimed at supporting production, protecting jobs, and maintaining South Africa\u2019s industrial capacity.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, both smelters activated the hardship provisions of their NPAs as market conditions deteriorated and electricity costs became increasingly difficult to absorb, Eskom said.<\/p>\n

In response, Eskom applied for a temporary waiver of take-or-pay obligations, which NERSA approved for a limited period.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile this helped stabilise operations temporarily, it highlighted the urgency of establishing a more sustainable, long-term solution,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

NERSA is currently processing an application for an interim tariff adjustment for the smelters.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the government is working on a complementary mechanism to support a more competitive pricing path for the sector, which is expected to be finalised over the next three months.<\/p>\n

Once the interim tariff is approved, the smelters have committed to suspending the Section 189 retrenchment process and bringing approximately 40% of their furnace capacity back online while the long-term solution is developed under the MoU.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Power utility Eskom says it has finalised a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with smelters in the country, which opens a path to preventing the loss of thousands of jobs in the ferrochrome sector. Eskom said it signed the MoU with Samancor Chrome and the Glencore\u2013Merafe Chrome Venture, following engagements with the Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":93933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-93934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nThousands of Jobs in South Africa Can Be Saved - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Power utility Eskom says it has finalised a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with smelters in the country, which opens ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Thousands of Jobs in South Africa Can Be Saved\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Power utility Eskom says it has finalised a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with smelters in the country, which opens ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-08T19:25:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-08T19:32:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765209696.741289.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Thousands of Jobs in South Africa Can Be Saved\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-08T19:25:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-08T19:32:36+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved\"},\"wordCount\":512,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765209696.741289.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/thousands-of-jobs-in-south-africa-can-be-saved\",\"name\":\"Thousands of Jobs in South Africa Can Be Saved - 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