The SA Police Service (SAPS) has taken several measures to address the crime at Eskom that former CEO André de Ruyter says is crippling the utility.
Deputy police minister Cassel Mathale said in his police budget vote speech in a mini-plenary of the National Assembly on Tuesday that 461 Eskom case dockets had been opened related to illegal and unregulated coal and fuel yards in partnership with the departments of fisheries, forestry & the environment and mineral resources & energy.
De Ruyter claims in his book Truth to Power that high-quality coal meant for delivery to Eskom power stations is diverted for criminal purposes and replaced with low-quality coal or rocks. Fuel has also been stolen.
Furthermore, Mathale said, the SAPS organised crime unit and the Hawks had jointly reported a total of 120 dockets that were registered, which had resulted in 98 arrests from January this year to date.
Mathale did not say what progress had been made in investigating these cases and how many of them had resulted in prosecutions, as according to De Ruyter some members of the police and some magistrates in Mpumalanga — where several Eskom power stations are located — appeared to be working in cahoots with the crime syndicates which were looting billions of rand at Eskom. This, he says, has contributed to the high stages of load-shedding that the country is now suffering from. De Ruyter alleges that some Eskom employees are collaborating in these crimes.
Mathale said that “pursuant to cabinet intervention and having realised the extent to which crime and inadequate security contributed to Eskom challenges” the government had implemented the following interventions: the establishment of a SAPS-led priority committee for energy security and a 24-hour mission area joint operational centre at Eskom’s head office at Megawatt Park, as well as planned operations and executed actions.
“These planned operations and executed actions are focused on combating crime incidents at Eskom sites and other associated electrical infrastructure in an attempt to secure the power grid,” Mathale said.
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