Those responsible for Eskom sabotage and theft must be prosecuted

It was cold comfort to hear on Wednesday that Eskom has reduced load shedding to “only” stage 3 from 10pm last night.

And perhaps only slightly more comforting to have Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter assuring us that South Africa is far from a total blackout, or collapse of the electricity grid.

Yet – that is where this electricity crisis has left us: not demanding 100% power 100% of the time, but happy to take the crumbs of stage 3 hoping complete darkness is still some way off.

De Ruyter also reportedly urged South Africans not to speculate or resort to what he called “fearmongering”.

Seriously, sir, can you blame us?

We have been made promises of improvements in power supply over and over again… but matters only seem to get worse.

This winter, the prediction is that we could have 101 days of load shedding.

ALSO READ: Eskom: Worst case would be stage 8 load shedding – before total blackout

That’s fear, right there. However, in fairness to De Ruyter, the continuing blackouts due to plant breakdowns are proving to be a far bigger and more intractable problem than he, and many others, had first anticipated.

At earlier briefings, the Eskom chief revealed that an eye-watering R1 billion of parts and machinery had been “misappropriated” – the word you’re looking for is stolen – from just one power station.

He also said Eskom had increased security around its plants because of obvious attempts to sabotage both machinery and coal supplies structures.

Disturbingly, he pointed at existing contractors and suppliers who profit handsomely from having to perform emergency maintenance when units are taken offline.

This is nothing less than sabotage of a national key point. And that is economic terrorism.

Those involved must be identified and prosecuted under the laws related to terrorism and insurrection, not the common laws relating to theft and damage to property