 The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, NUMSA and SCOM, the public sector electric company, reached an agreement during the central bargaining forum process on June 15. NUMSA is one of the largest trade unions in South Africa, representing workers in the metal and engineering sectors. Major victories were won in terms of wage hikes and housing allowance. Workers were also assured a lump sum payment of 10,000 rands or $550 USD. South Africa has been in the throes of a worsening electricity crisis for years now. SCOM is a state-owned coal-dependent company which provides around 90% of South Africa's electricity. What happened today is a culmination of what we think our members and shop stewards deserve to be thanked about because as the union leadership, we have only got the right and the privilege to guide and to think strategically to reposition the union bargaining strategy. One of the things we did in the National Shop Steward Council, which we sharply raised, was that we were off the view that it is not strategic. This negotiations every year. And we started to moot and to put on the table a suggestion which we think all parties finally agreed to it, even though at the beginning they did not agree, that we needed to explore a three-year agreement to move away from this one-year agreement so that the employer, which is SCOM in this case, can appreciate the importance of buying stability because every year we are on each other's throat. But also these two us became more strategic in the light of the fact that we are confronted with running blackouts. Our people are not happy with SCOM and we could not be every year embarking on strike. And quite frankly, with angry degree to it, in our view was very disruptive. If there's anything except the nonsense fake book that he wrote, what he did was to collapse SCOM. Today, we have got running blackouts. And as a result, we have to ask ourselves very hard questions. How do we go about to ensure that we negotiate and get a better deal for workers and at the same time take care of the actual crisis that is deepening up the rolling and as a union, we muted this strategy and we can report to workers that we think it's not a raw deal to secure 7%, 7%, 7% for a period of three years because that's 7%. The following 7% will go, will push them, will land on a higher base, but at the time the three-year agreement comes to an end, workers will be better off. Secondly, we also secured 7% that goes to improve their housing allowance by 7%. And for two years, workers will be getting 10,000 lump sum every year, except for the last year. And we think that that's a victory for workers. And we think that that provides us with an opportunity to focus on how to stop these rolling blackouts and making a call to our members across the length and breadth of the country in Escom that lets do everything to fix those power stations. We need that 75 energy availability factor so that we can stop the rolling blackout. It is our communities that are suffering. It is our members. It is our workers whose jobs are being sacrificed. These rolling blackouts are basically sabotaging the economy. We need to stop them as yesterday and therefore moving forward, we are making a clarion call to government, to Escom that lets open up dialogue. We are a sovereign country. We have got a right to ensure that we must decide on what energy mix that will suit our economy, that will suit the powering of our communities so that we can create the necessary jobs. And we know everybody anywhere else, they are making a noise about the fact that we must not touch coal. We reject that. We think that as part of that energy mix, we would have coal, we would have nuclear, we would have gas and that we can be told not to touch coal when about 700% of our coal is leaving our shores. Where is it going? It is going to the very west that says we must not touch coal. And therefore we are saying beyond these negotiations which we are happy that we have wrapped up, wrapped them up without a strike, we must get our hands in joining everybody that we must make sure that we stop the current rolling out. And of course, we are calling on all workers to join NUMSA in numbers. It is a union of choice, it is a union that thinks strategically, you belong to NUMSA. Escom has struggled to meet the country's energy demands for over 15 years, resorting to load shedding in the process. Record power outages over the past year have inflicted major economic losses and disrupted access to crucial public services, including hospitals. Recently in May, a high court in Pretoria ruled in favor of NUMSA and other applicants seeking relief from severe power outages that have affected much of the country. The court ordered the Ministry of Public Enterprises to take necessary steps to ensure that there is no interruption due to load shedding to public health establishments, public schools and the South African Police Service.