By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
Parliament has welcomed the deployment of the army at four Eskom power stations in Mpumalanga.
Chairperson of the portfolio committee on mineral resources and energy Zet Luzipho said on Sunday they feel vindicated by government’s decision to send the troops to the power stations as they had identified sabotage as one of the problems.
Luzipo said they understood that about 10 soldiers were deployed at each of the four power stations.
Eskom announced on Saturday that the government has sent in the army at Majuba, Camden, Grootvlei and Tutuka power stations.
This was after the power utility had been complaining about incidents of sabotage, which it stated contributed to load shedding.
Luzipo said they wanted the state to crack down on crimes committed at Eskom and its power stations.
“The committee has always held a firm view that the country’s electricity crisis is caused by Eskom’s inability to deal with maintenance of ageing power stations and internal sabotage as opposed to a policy failure. We now feel exonerated,” said Luzipo.
The decision to send the soldiers to the power stations also comes after the Hawks and other law enforcement agencies arrested a number of people in an illegal coal yard close to an Eskom power plant in Mpumalanga.