Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan said on Friday night that the proposed Eskom salary freeze was no longer an option.

Gordhan’s ministry said in a statement that he called a meeting with the Eskom board‚ the management of the parastatal and of three labour unions‚ to deal with the problem.

He said it was decided that negotiations over salary increases will resume “with immediate effect”.

“It was agreed that the 0% offer from Eskom is off the table‚” the statement read.

It continued: “The parties agreed that the current disruptions at Eskom that resulted in load-shedding since yesterday are not beneficial to either party nor to the country and the economy.”

It was also agreed‚ the statement read‚ that operations would be normalised to “ensure the security of electricity supply”. This comes as load-shedding was implemented on Thursday and Friday‚ with Eskom saying that disruptions during protest action was to blame.

“The Minister wishes to thank all the parties for the constructive engagement and calls on all parties to play their part in ensuring that electricity supply is restored‚” the statement said.