IOL reports that Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says issues related to possible sabotage at Eskom, including matters of fraud, corruption, and security at the power utility, are receiving urgent attention, with police currently investigating at least 1,500 cases.

Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria on Monday, Ramokgopa said since April last year, over 2,000 cases had been reported to the police for investigation as Eskom tried to get a grip on the power crisis affecting the lives and livelihoods of all South Africans. Ramokgopa advised that of the 2,147 cases which had been reported, 1,586 were still under investigation by the police and this had resulted in over 126 people having been arrested. These included alleged diesel thieves who were arrested last year after fleecing thousands of litres of fuel from the state-owned enterprise. In June, Eskom placed head of security Karen Pillay on precautionary suspension following allegations she was involved in irregularly awarding a R500 million security tender to Fidelity. “In addition to the technical solutions that we are seeking to resolve the issues at Eskom, we are also focused on addressing some of the underlying problems which have been issues of fraud, corruption and security,” said Ramokgopa. He indicated that this involved interactions with officials and staff at Eskom, working with police, doing patrols at power stations and visiting coal yards and local scrap dealers in a bid to understand the nature of the criminal activities. Ramokgopa, who also apologised to South Africans after the country was plunged into Stage 6 load shedding at the weekend, said load shedding was unacceptable and Stage 6 blackouts should never become the norm.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sihle Mlambo at IOL

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