The National Society of Black Engineers has slammed remarks allegedly made by ANC NEC members Senzo Mchunu and Pravin Gordhan against black professionals as "unacceptable and unwarranted".

The organisation's president Mduduzi Mlaba said the comments attributed to the two ANC senior leaders "were neither warranted nor acceptable" about black engineers at embattled state-owned power utility Eskom.

"It would be wonderful if we were to have Mr Senzo Mchunu and Mr Pravin Gordhan in their own personal capacity to then come forward and state for themselves if they were misquoted and actually apologise," Mlaba said.

The organisation (NSBE) held a joint media briefing with the ANC at Luthuli House yesterday following a meeting with the governing party this week.

Mchunu had blamed "black managers" at Eskom for the power crisis that has seen the implementation of load-shedding.

Gordhan, although disputing the accuracy of the reports about his comments, had reportedly said he would bring in international engineers to fix the current crisis at the power utility.

Gordhan had demanded an apology by Luthuli House after a statement had been issued criticising him. The ANC apologised unreservedly to Gordhan and Mchunu, saying it made a mistake condemning their remarks.

Mlaba said: "Those two incidences [remarks] made the NSBE unhappy. When the ANC press statement came out to apologise for the two incidences, we were pleased. Then later on, we then saw [another] apology that left us confused."