The South African government has for more than a decade poured billions of rands into Eskom, which provides almost all of South Africa's electricity
AFP

Troops deployed to Eskom power stations and other locations across the country will cost more than R200 million.

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) deployment to Eskom power stations, which commenced on Dec. 16, 2022, will last till March 16, 2023.

According to President Cyril Ramaphosa, the total expenditure for the SANDF deployment is R206,31,240 million. The president had forwarded the report to members of the National Council of Provinces and the co-chairpersons of the Joint Standing Committee on Defence and had requested that the contents be brought to the attention of National Assembly members, News24 Reported.

Section 201 of the constitution and section 19 of the Defence Act of 2002 give the president authority to deploy the SANDF anywhere if need be. Also, the president has a responsibility to inform parliament of the same.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) and South African National Defence Force (SANDF) banded together to launch Operation Prosper last year after intelligence suggested that specific crucial Eskom assets, including power plants, were under imminent and direct threat.

The plan also specifies the deployment of the air force, medical services, and military police and names six stations in Mpumalanga and one in the Free State.

Advocate Karen Pillay, Eskom's general manager for security, criticized the slowness of prosecutions involving those detained for sabotage and other offenses against the national power company in December 2022, Business Tech Reported.

According to Pillay, Eskom has to "micromanage" its investigations and spends R3.2 billion a year on private security due to sabotage, threats to kill key executives, theft, and damage to vital infrastructure.

She disclosed that two of the 16 sabotage cases the company launched with police in the previous year had an Eskom employee as a suspect.

Eskom, in recent months, has made numerous significant arrests concerning the theft of coal and diesel and one instance of active sabotage.

In November 2022, a truck driver and his supervisor from a transport business that had been subcontracted to transport coal to the group's Matla Power Station were detained on suspicion of stealing high-quality coal and substituting it with lower-quality material.

Additionally, two security guards Eskom hired to secure Port Rex Power Station in East London were detained for stealing 5,863 liters of diesel. In two other cases, truckers hauling coal to Camden and Kendal power plants were also detained.