‘A Measure Of Sabotage’ Behind Latest Power Cuts, Ramaphosa Says After Meeting With Eskom Board

Riyaz Patel

President Cyril Ramaphosa said sabotage is among the factors that has led to the recent rolling power cuts.

The President said that while a number of factors contributed to the recent rotational power cuts, including heavy rains, unplanned outages and the age of power stations, about 2000MW of power was also lost due to an act of sabotage. 

“What has also come out as a great concern is that there has been a measure of sabotage, sabotage that has lead to the loss – during this period – of 2000MW, where someone in the Eskom system disconnected one of the instruments that finally lead to one of the boilers tripping, and us losing as much as 2000MW.”

The president was speaking after an emergency meeting with with Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe; Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan; and the Eskom board and management at Eskom’s headquarters