Eskom cuts claims of sabotage while frequent blackouts plague KwaDukuza

Eskom has dismissed claims of sabotage as a cause of the 18-hour blackout in large parts of KwaDukuza recently.

On Saturday, May 29, the supply from the Eskom Shakaskraal substation was cut, plunging about 15 wards into darkness.

A senior engineering source within Eskom blamed employees for the shutdown, saying they had used the shutdown to generate more hours in overtime.

“Many of the outages are theft of equipment and recently we believe that employees with knowledge of the substation’s inner workings are deliberately messing with the infrastructure and undermining the electricity grid,” he said.

DA ward 22 councillor Privi Makhan said when she visited the substation that Sunday it was clear that the cables had been tampered with and appeared to have been cut.

However, Eskom denied the allegations and said the outage was due to cable theft and vandalism and had nothing to do with Eskom employees.

Eskom said a case was opened at Umhlali Saps and an investigator has been assigned to work with the police to resolve the matter.

KwaDukuza municipality electrical and engineering unit head, Sibusiso Jali said he could not respond to allegations of sabotage within Eskom.

The municipality has also been dealing with similar issues.

Last year a senior KDM electricity manager was suspended after a number of copper cables were allegedly found at his Groutville home.

Copper which is easily accessible, poorly secured and relatively easy to steal, can be sold to scrap dealers for around R80 a kilogram or used in illegal electricity connections.

Makhan said the recurrence of vandalism, theft and sabotage on KDM’s electricity infrastructure came at enormous cost.

She called for immediate police and political intervention to tackle the criminal vandalism of essential infrastructure.

Cameras and manned security at the Shakaskraal substation were urgently needed, including the reinforcement of all cables using concrete or cable safes.