WATCH: Deployment of troops to Eskom plants raises questions about sabotage

Following Eskom’s deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to its several power stations in response to the growing threat which the Presidency said included acts of sabotage, theft, vandalism and corruption, questions regarding sabotage still hang in the balance.

Eskom’s Aubrey Sambo said there had been attempts to identify and root out ongoing sabotage as the power utility battles unprecedented load shedding.

“On the issue of sabotage, there have been several allegations, with a confirmed sabotage incident at Tutuka Power Station in May this year,” he said.

Eskom has identified more than five instances of sabotage this year, with at least five employees found in its sabotage investigation which began in May.

The power utility previously confirmed that a contractor working at Camden power station in Mpumalanga was arrested after being positively linked to an incident of sabotage.

The contractor admitted to intentionally removing the oil drain plug from a bearing causing oil burners to trip repeatedly, Eskom said in a statement.

According to DefenceWeb, planning to develop and diversify the national power grid and energy supply should include enough resources to protect them. This requires cooperative planning between Eskom and the SA security sector (both state and private).

It also noted that the exact role of the SANDF in providing security for critical infrastructure remains unclear. The National Key Points Act 1980, the Defence Act 2002 and the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act 8 of 2019 are not explicit on the issue.

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“Critical infrastructure consists of national assets that are viewed as having strategic importance. South Africa has plenty of critical infrastructure spread across its length and breadth – measuring about 1.219 million km²,” the DefenceWeb said.

“These include the Eskom energy grid (including power stations, sub-stations and transmission networks) dams, the banking system and oil storage. The sheer scale requires extensive security capabilities necessary for physical protection and monitoring threats.

“Beyond physically securing this infrastructure, the state also needs to have the ability to detect, deter and neutralise threat actors. These are classical counter-intelligence prerogatives. Failure on this front makes the country vulnerable to destabilisation.”

The Presidency yesterday told The Citizen there was a growing threat at Eskom’s power stations, with serious concerns and risks to SA’s energy infrastructure.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said Defence Minister Thandi Modise responded to the request made by President Cyril Ramaphosa and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to support the ongoing activities of the security cluster.

A minimum of 10 soldiers will be assigned to each of the four plants and further deployments will be announced in due course.

Eskom is currently removing 6 000 megawatts – known as load shedding – from the grid, resulting in outages of as long four hours two or three times a day.

It has implemented power cuts on 191 days of 2022, however supply has been constrained from its old and poorly maintained plants that continuously break down.

Gordhan alluded to similar incidents happening at the power utility earlier this year, noting that some Eskom employees were “resisting” moves to root out corruption and apply higher performance standards.

In November 2021, outgoing Eskom chief executive André de Ruyter – who resigned last week but will stay on until March 2023 – confirmed a deliberate act of sabotage near the Lethabo power station in Vereeniging, where there was clear evidence that an electricity pylon had been deliberately cut and felled.

Other incidents of suspected sabotage that also require deeper investigation, include:

– Medupi’s unit 4 generator explosion in August 2021, where procedural failure caused the generator to blow up and tripped another, requiring about R2.5 billion to fix;

– In an incident at the Matimba power station, someone allegedly dropped an extension cord onto a transformer, putting three units out of action; and

– An incident where a technician closed the wrong valve at the Koeberg power station.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za