Andrew Watson: The 'most influential' black footballer for decades lost to history

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  By Andrew Aloia BBC Sport Last updated on 11 October 2021 11 October 2021 . From the section Football Watson was a trailblazer who helped transform how football was played There are two murals of black footballers facing one another across an alleyway in Glasgow. One helped shape football as we know it, the other is Pele. Andrew Watson captained Scotland to a 6-1 win over England on his debut in 1881. He was a pioneer, the world's first black international, but for more than a century the significance of his achievements went unrecognised. Research conducted over the past three decades has left us with some biographical details: a man descended of slaves and of those who enslaved them, born in Guyana, raised to become an English gentleman and famed as one of Scottish football's first icons. And yet today, 100 years on from his death aged 64, Watson remains something of an enigma, the picture built around him a fractured one. His grainy, faded, sepia image evokes many differen

SOUTH AFRICA 2,000 Eskom employees gone in a year, but 6,000 more must go to reach 'right size'

 

SA's power utility said it has about 6,000 more employees than it needs

15 February 2021 - 18:14
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter: 'We run a large and complex business.'
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter: 'We run a large and complex business.'
Image: REUTERS/SUMAYA HISHAM

Last year alone, 2,000 Eskom employees left the embattled parastatal.

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter made the revelation on Monday as he delivered a virtual address on the power utility’s state of affairs.

De Ruyter said the company had been looking at its fixed and staff costs, and realised that it needed to cut back on its employee costs, which essentially meant reducing staff.

None of those who were released from Eskom’s employ were retrenched, however. De Ruyter said some retired while others took voluntary severance packages.

“We followed the instruction of our shareholders not to engage in forced retrenchments. We are on a path to steadily reduce our headcount over time to maintain a staff cost that we believe is commensurate with the requirements of our very large and complex business that we operate,” he said.

De Ruyter said he was aware of the narrative that Eskom was overstaffed, with some saying it employed twice as many people as it needed. That narrative, he said, was that the power giant could operate with a staff complement of 30,000. He stressed that this was not correct.

After a thorough analysis of Eskom’s requirements to run smoothly, De Ruyter said it needed about 38,000 employees.

“We think that is a right-sized number. We are now at about 44,000,” he said.

He did not immediately give a timeline required to reach the desired number of staff.

TimesLIVE


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