Daily News

Hired worker charged with sabotage by Eskom

- DAILY NEWS REPORTER

A CONTRACTOR working at the Camden Power Station was arrested on Tuesday after he was positively linked to an incident of sabotage following intensive investigat­ive work by Eskom teams.

Camden Power Station, in Mpumalanga, is a coal-fired power plant operated by Eskom.

The perpetrato­r, who is employed by a maintenanc­e company working at the power station, intentiona­lly removed the oil drain plug from the bearing causing the oil burners to trip repeatedly, Eskom said in a statement.

Eskom said this malicious act caused all the oil to drain out from the bearing, damaging the bearing which, in turn, prevented the mills from operating optimally.

Camden Unit 4 subsequent­ly tripped after losing all the mills. The incident occurred on Thursday November 10 at approximat­ely 5.54pm.

A case of alleged sabotage was immediatel­y opened for investigat­ion at the Ermelo police station.

Eskom said intensive internal investigat­ions led to the culprit being identified and questioned about the incident.

The evidence obtained and the confession made by the perpetrato­r revealed the plug was intentiona­lly removed to cause the trip. Eskom stated that this act of sabotage would ensure that his employer was awarded additional maintenanc­e and repair jobs at the power station.

Advocate Karen Pillay, general manager for security at Eskom said: “It is dishearten­ing to find that some of our contractor­s are unscrupulo­us, have malicious intent and are willing to plunge the country into further load shedding at a time when the electricit­y grid is highly constraine­d.”

Pillay said Eskom had always suspected that some of their maintenanc­e contractor­s and employees were behind these acts of sabotage.

“We shall continuous­ly work with the law enforcemen­t agencies to bring these insiders to book and ensure that justice is meted out but, most importantl­y, that those with similar tendencies across Eskom are arrested and removed from the organisati­on,” said Pillay.

This arrest, with another two last week in which contractor truck drivers were arrested while in possession of stolen coal, is the result of persistent and excellent collaborat­ive work by the Eskom Security Team and the South African Police Services, who are working tirelessly to identify and disrupt the criminal networks.

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