South Africa’s Minerals Council on Tuesday warned that electricity price increases by state-owned power utility Eskom will lead to over 90,000 job losses in South Africa’s gold and platinum mining industries over the next three years. Earlier this year, South Africa’s National Energy Regulator said that Eskom could hike tariffs by 9.41 percent in 2019, 8.10 percent in 2020 and 5.2 percent in 2021. According to the council, as many as 90,222 jobs would be at risk solely because of the electricity tariff increases. The power price hike would make the situation even worse. Gold Fields said last year it could slash 1,100 jobs, and Impala Platinum plans to cut its workforce by a third.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 27, 2019 15:22 UTC