The non-aligned Federation of Trade Unions of SA (Fedusa) on Wednesday called on the government to find another way of financing Eskom's massive generator build-programme.

Giving evidence on the finance minister medium term budget policy statement to a joint meeting of finance committees in Parliament, Gretchen Humphries, deputy general secretary of Fedusa, said "There is an urgent need to find a sustainable solution to funding electricity generation in the near future."

The proposed tariff hikes will be unaffordable for most small businesses, and individuals, she said.

"Fedusa would therefore urge government to come up with innovative steps to solve this serious problem. One option could be for government to obtain the necessary funds for providing Eskom's capital requirements by way of borrowing in foreign markets."

The trade union group also took exception to the establishment of new government departments and the appointment of additional ministers and deputy ministers and departmental staff. Humphries said this "can bee seen as a political exercise to appease the various factions within the ANC with the perks and privileges of executive office".

She noted that most of the presidential vote in the adjusted estimates of expenditure is allocated towards the funding of new ministries and staff. "Do we really need these new ministers?" she asked

She declared that R150-million allocation in the public works department budget for offices and residences of new ministers and deputy ministers "is exhausting", to which must be added another R47-million.

"It is seen as a major setback to service delivery and poverty alleviation," she said.

Fedusa announced that it does not support the proposed R200-million that has been set aside for the SABC, which has been racked with financial problems for most of the year.

"We do not agree," Humphries said, "that such a huge sum of money be allocated to the SABC that has not been able to utilise their funds sufficiently in the past. The workers, those people in society that are paying tax will now have to be responsible for the errors of mismanagement by the national broadcaster."

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