Eskom officials, police involved in syndicate stealing millions worth of fuel from Kriel Power Station – report

A sophisticated criminal syndicate has reportedly been stealing millions of rand worth of fuel at Eskom’s Kriel Power Station in Mpumalanga.

Investigative journalism unit, amaBhungane, on Monday, reported that the syndicate worked in cahoots with Eskom officials, police and trucking companies to steal fuel from the coal-powered station.

The syndicate has reportedly been exploiting a design flaw at the station that has to do with a weigh bridge.

Eskom’s Kriel Power Station uses fuel-oil at start-up or during unstable furnace conditions to ignite or stabilise the coal flame. The fuel-oil is reportedly stored in four storage tanks with a combined capacity of 1,350 tons.

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Weigh bridge design flaw

A truck driver who spoke to amaBhungane, on condition of anonymity, said unlike other power stations owned by Eskom, the weigh bridge at Kriel was outside the power station and not inside the Eskom yard.

“This gives a chance for trucks to drive to other locations to offload and then come back to weigh,” the truck driver was quoted as saying.

Among the reasons behind the theft of fuel at Kriel were reportedly lax security and officials not playing an oversight role to determine the amount of fuel being ordered.

Three drivers amaBhungane spoke to claimed that a full tanker was usually worth between R500,000 and R1 million, depending on the size of a tanker and the type of fuel.

On the black market, the minimum price for the load would be R250,000.

Cash deposit payments

Sources claimed that Eskom and police officials involved in the syndicate received and made payments via cash deposits at automatic teller machines, which made them difficult to trace.

A truck driver was arrested outside Kriel Power Station on 18 March after he was allegedly caught with a tanker full of stolen fuel.

Douglas Ndivhatzo Ralulimi, 39, is reportedly out on bail of R10,000.

The theft case was taken over by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks.

The Hawks declined to comment when approached for comment by amaBhungane, arguing that the investigation was still active.

Eskom CEO André de Ruyter acknowledged the amaBhungane story during a media briefing on Monday on load shedding.

Without elaborating on the matter, De Ruyter said the theft of fuel by criminal syndicates at Kriel was disrupting their operations.

“That plant currently has two units completely out and partial load losses of 300MW. So that’s another 900MW of capacity we do not have available,” he said.

The Citizen has reached out to Eskom for comment. The story will be updated once comment is received.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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