‘SANDF has helped Eskom’: No sabotage reported in months, but petty crimes persist

The deployment of soldiers to Eskom’s power stations around the country has benefitted the power utility, with no major crime incidents being reported in recent times.

Frequent incidents of criminal activity such as cable theft, sabotage and vandalism at Eskom resulted in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) being roped in to protect the utility’s power stations.

The deployment, which is expected to cost R146 million, will end on 17 October 2023.

Arrests

Giving an update on the progress made by law enforcement in dealing with criminality at Eskom, Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa indicated that more than 2 000 cases were being investigated.

“Over the period from April 2022 to date, there are 2 147 Eskom cases that have been reported to the South African Police Service [Saps] and about 1 586 of these are under investigation. Since that period…126 arrests have been made.

“In addition to the technical solutions that we are seeking to resolve the issues at Eskom, we are also focused on addressing some of the underlying problems which have been issues of fraud, corruption and security,” he said in a media briefing on Monday.

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Ramokgopa said the police were not only protecting Eskom power stations, but also investigating criminal activity linked to the power utility.

“The unit is located at Eskom and embedded there and they also get to interact with various police stations that are attached to the various power stations.

“They do make regular visits not just to power stations, but also to coal yards because they are trying to understand the anatomy of these criminal activities. They also go to second hand dealers just to ensure that people can account for their activities,” he said.

Watch the briefing below:

The minister said a number of scrap yard dealers have been visited by police in the crackdown on copper cable theft.

“They have visited about 15 043 scrap metal dealers. They have done compliance inspections so that we are able to undermine and cut the arteries of these syndicates and allow Eskom to do its work going forward,” he said.

‘Petty crimes’

Ramokgopa further pointed out the work done by law enforcement had a direct impact on Eskom’s ability to function and generate electricity.

“We have also tried to provide a value of what has been physically recovered, but I think there’s a greater value that almost from a security point of view is intangible, but from a technical point of view, we are able to account for it.

“If we could be able to illustrate that some of the megawatts recovered are as a result of the work of our colleagues in the intelligence and security agency, you can see that number will far exceed the R93 million… essentially the additional megawatts that are made available to the South African economy,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena said the SANDF’s deployment has helped the power utility combat criminality.

“As Eskom, I think we have seen a benefit for the [soldiers] being there. The last sabotage incident that was reported was in February. Obviously right now we are experiencing petty crimes.

“There’s about three cables incidents that were [recently] reported, but with the SANDF being there we managed to arrest those perpetrators,” Mokwena said.