The 24-year old power station was placed under care and maintenance in August 2012 due to unreliable and aged equipment characterised by frequent breakdowns and high cost of operation. The BPC is currently considering whether to lease it out or refurbish it at costs estimated beyond P500 million.This week, BPC Workers Union general secretary Bohithetswe Lentswe said available information suggested that the affected workers had left the utility last Friday."Following the initial intention to rationalise given, workers recently received letters informing them of their fate, with some being redeployed to other business units or power station, and others being exited," he told Mmegi Business."We have not had an official report, but the figure we have heard is that 52 are leaving under both the voluntary exit scheme and the retrenchment exercise.
"We have requested an urgent meeting (with management) so that they give us a full report on how the exercise was carried out. We would want to see whether there were any irregularities."Lentswe estimated that 100 Morupule A workers had applied to participate in the voluntary exit scheme, with an assessment panel recommending which workers were successful or otherwise. At present, it is unknown how many workers were successful in the voluntary exit and how many were deemed "too critical" to be granted leave to depart.BPC spokesperson Spencer Moreri could only confirm that the rationalisation was ongoing, but would not be drawn into discussing details of the exercise.From being the country's sole generator of base load power from 1989, the iconic power station's availability progressively dropped from over 84 percent in 2008 to below 30 percent in 2012, forcing the suspension of operations.
