Mteto Nyati: Sabotage at Eskom is ‘overblown’
Eskom board chair Mteto Nyati has downplayed sabotage as a major cause of load-shedding, citing a decline in incidents. While small-scale sabotage persists, drones have successfully monitored coal conveyor belts, reducing disruptions caused by vandalism.
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By Myles Illidge
Mteto Nyati says assertions that sabotage by Eskom's power station staff was a key cause of load-shedding are "highly exaggerated" and that the utility now only sees sabotage on a small scale.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, the board chair said the primary concern regarding sabotage is protecting the conveyor belts delivering coal from mines directly to Eskom power stations.
Nyati said companies that deliver coal via trucks sometimes hire people to vandalise conveyor belts, forcing Eskom to use their services while equipment is repaired.
However, he noted that Eskom has deployed drones to monitor these conveyor belts, which has proven successful.
"We've been able to catch a few people trying to do that and take some of those through the court processes," the Sunday Times quoted Nyati as saying.
Eskom's former leadership and communications team reported numerous incidents of suspected sabotage by its staff and contractors in 2021 and 2022.
However, it reported very few incidents in 2023.
Excluding sabotage that compromised railway lines and conveyor belts feeding coal to Eskom power stations, the power utility published information regarding suspected sabotage within its power stations on several occasions, including:
- November 2021: Matimba Power Station — A worker dropped an extension cord onto a transformer, putting three units out of action.
- November 2021: Lethabo Power Station — Power transmission pylons cut and tipped over, nearly causing a total loss of power station capacity.
- March 2022: Koeberg Power Station — A technician closed the wrong unit's valve at Koeberg, which could have caused severe damage.
- May 2022: Hendrina Power Station — Cable cut and copper bars were stolen, preventing the unit from being synchronised to the grid.
- May 2022: Tutuka Power Station — Control air pipe cut, delaying return to service of unit 5. This was the fifth incident of suspected sabotage of this power station in a year.
- October 2022: Camden Power Station — A technician opened the wrong valve and contaminated the plant's demineralised water supply.
In his book Truth to Power, Former Eskom CEO André de Ruyter detailed several incidents of sabotage, describing the struggle as a "low-grade civil war against criminals threatening to overrun the state."
However, reports of sabotage within Eskom's power stations dwindled in 2023, and in November 2023, Eskom told MyBroadband that it had seen a radical decline in incidents since December 2022.
It said the last confirmed sabotage incident occurred at Camden Power Station in November 2022, when a contractor intentionally removed a bearing oil drain plug. This caused the oil burners on one of its generation units to trip repeatedly.
"This malicious act caused all the oil to drain out from the bearing, thus damaging the bearing which, in turn, prevented the mills from operating optimally," Eskom said.
"Camden Unit 4 subsequently tripped after losing all the mills."
Sabotage became a major contributor to unplanned breakdowns at the power utility under De Ruyter and former COO Jan Oberholzer's tenure.
Both departed Eskom in early 2023, but not before bringing the issue of sabotage to President Cyril Ramaphosa's attention, resulting in the deployment of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers to Eskom power stations.
The soldiers were deployed to protect the power utility's power station infrastructure, and while the deployment was initially only meant to last a few months, Ramaphosa has repeatedly extended it.
Most recently, he extended the SANDF's presence from April 2024 to March 2025, with a far smaller deployment of 746 soldiers.
This comes at a substantial cost to taxpayers but appears to have paid off. Eskom told MyBroadband it directly attributes the decrease in sabotage to the SANDF's participation at its power stations.
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This article was first published MyBroadband and is republished with permission