South African Army Deployed To Safeguard Eskom Power Plants

The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has been deployed to multiple power stations, state-owned energy utility Eskom and the presidency said Saturday.

The move comes as South Africa experiences its worst power crisis in years, with rolling blackouts and load-shedding becoming a regular occurrence.

Eskom confirmed that the South African National Defence Force has been deployed to four of its power stations - Majuba, Camden, Grootvlei, and Tutuka.

The power utility added that the SANDF will help with "stabilizing" the power stations.

In the initial phase, a minimum of 10 soldiers will be deployed at each station, with further deployments in the pipeline, President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya told AFP, Global Times reported.

Magwenya further explained the primary purpose of the deployment is to protect power stations from theft of critical equipment and infrastructure.

Eskom presented an operational update to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) in October, revealing its investigation with the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) had uncovered entire criminal syndicates operating within its supply chain, including acts of sabotage.

The power utility company has made several key arrests in recent months related to the theft of coal and diesel, as well as one case of active sabotage.

One of the biggest recent arrests was a contractor working at the Camden Power Station, who was arrested after he confessed to sabotaging equipment at the power station.

The contractor confessed that he damaged equipment on purpose to cause a breakdown at the power station so that his employer could get more maintenance contracts from the power utility, Sunday Times reported.

These high-level crimes are taking place while the country experiences the worst levels of load shedding on record.

Currently, stage 6 load shedding is in effect until further notice due to 8 generating units at Eskom's power stations going down.

Meanwhile, the group has run out of money to buy more diesel for its open-cycle gas turbines. Eskom has also taken Koeberg unit 1 offline, which removes 1,000MW from the grid while 3,000MW remains offline due to damaged units at Medupi and Kusile.