Accusations of widespread sabotage to Eskom's current woes were not substantiated by facts, Andre de Ruyter said on Friday.
Responding to the question of sabotage, the power utility CEO would not be drawn on making a conclusive statement whether breakdowns at several power stations were due to sabotage or not.
He said elements of criminality and negligence were both present. “To say widespread sabotage is simply not substantiated by the facts,” De Ruyter said.
“It’s very often difficult to distinguish between negligence and sabotage. I’m quite reluctant to play the sabotage card because it's a phrase with all sorts of connotations. I don't want to say there's widespread sabotage. From time to time there have been situations of cable theft at some of our power stations and this seems to be more closely related to common criminality than acts of sabotage.
“We have had instances, for examples, of valves being opened to drain boilers of demineralised water which has a significant affect on our ability to bring back units to service. Whether that is through malice or negligence is a matter we investigate with every incident,” De Ruyter said.
He added that Eskom had also beefed up their surveillance at power stations by placing drones with infrared capabilities to detect movement. “We've apprehended a number of cable thieves about our power stations, particularly at Kendal power station and Tutuka power station with significant success.
“We've also installed intelligent cameras that are able to use artificial intelligence to detect if there are unwarranted activities taking place. These can teach themselves to detect, for example, people smoking in areas where they shouldn't and this has given us much better control of the surveillance systems,” he said.
