Cape Town – Police are investigating over 1 500 cases of sabotage at Eskom, Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on Monday.
The minister said since April 1 last year, 2 147 criminal cases relating to Eskom had been opened, of which 1 586 were under investigation and for which 126 arrests had been made.
Ramokgopa highlighted the progress made in tackling fraud, corruption, and security issues within Eskom.
Police are investigating over 1,500 reports of sabotage at Eskom. Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says police are winning the war against the scourge. #QuestionThinkAct #DStv403 pic.twitter.com/Cry6g9edie
— eNCA (@eNCA) July 17, 2023
He mentioned the presence of an operational investigative unit embedded within Eskom to address problems at power stations and coal yards through regular visits.
“We are looking at the configuration of the anatomy of a criminal operation by looking at the sources. We’ve been checking on secondhand dealers and will elaborate on that later. At this stage we have carried out 15,043 compliance inspections, and we are cutting the arteries of syndicates,” he said, estimating the value of physical recoveries of stolen property at “just shy of R94m,” said Ramokgopa during a media briefing on Monday.
He also issued an apology to the nation for the implementation of Stage 6 load shedding, which occurred last week due to breakdowns and delays in restoring generating units.
Ramokgopa expressed his sincere apology and said that that load shedding is unacceptable.
“I want to express our sincere and profuse apology for having taken you through a very difficult stage of intensive load shedding.
[WATCH] Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa apologises for the escalating stages of #loadshedding. “#Loadshedding is unacceptable, and going to higher stages like #stage6 should not be a norm.” #Eskom #Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/MRePHAqcB3
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) July 17, 2023
“Firstly, load shedding is unacceptable. The second part is that going to higher stages of load shedding, especially Stage 6, should not become the norm. If anything, that should constitute an extraordinary occurrence. The intensity of load shedding that goes beyond Stage 4 is something that should be unacceptable and it’s something that, to the degree that we can… we will do everything to avoid,” the minister said.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
