Eskom’s senior managers – who earn R1.5m to R3m a year – are taking the power utility to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) because they have not been given a salary increase in the past year.

Rapport newspaper said on Sunday that between 180 and 200 senior managers wanted a retroactive increase of 4,7% - the same as that granted to middle managers.

Deon Reyneke, deputy director of trade union Solidarity, said should senior management’s demand be implemented, it would cost the power utility an additional R200m to R300m per year.

Eskom just posted a whopping R20.7bn loss in the year to end March and is being kept afloat, in the short term, by massive government bailouts.

The latest bailout - R59bn - announced by finance minister Tito Mboweni in July, would buy the power utility another 12 to 18 months to formulate a recovery plan, Business Times reported on Sunday. This is on top of the R69bn that the energy company was allocated in the national budget in February.

“I stated before during my budget vote that Eskom presents the biggest risk to the financial fiscal framework because of its financial difficulties and its negative impact on the lives of ordinary South Africans,” Mboweni said when he tabled a special appropriation bill to provide an additional R59bn to Eskom.

Rapport said that Eskom’s workforce had decreased by 1,963 to 46,665 over the past year as a result of natural attrition.