Eskom ‘frustrated’ with NPA

● Eskom has hit out at the slow pace of prosecutions involving people arrested for sabotage and other crimes against the power utility.

General manager for security Karen Pillay says Eskom has to “micromanage” investigations.

“We’ve had to extend support in the sense that we’ve put watching briefs on some of the cases, where we contract legal experts to guide some of these prosecutors, and even the investigative teams on specific matters,” Pillay said.

“We’ve had issues such as the unavailability of prosecutors after hours, unavailability and unwillingness of magistrates, having to force commissioned police officers to obtain confessions — this is really challenging and time consuming for us to manage.

“We have had incidents where individuals have been released on ridiculous amounts of bail. It almost gives one the sense that the severity of the incident, and the impact it has on the bigger scale of the economy, are not taken into consideration.

“We have also had incidents where a docket had sufficient evidence to warrant continued attention, but there’s been a lack of action … It’s a process of having to walk each case as we present it before the court, almost the process of micromanaging.”

However, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has hit back, saying its specialised units are “highly skilled to deal with complex cases relating to essential infrastructure”.

NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke said: “There is no indication that the courts cannot deal with these offences. It is also critical for the SOEs [state-owned enterprises] to ensure that their controls and security measures are in place to prevent any unlawful activities at their sites.”

Pillay said Eskom spends R3.2bn a year on private security due to sabotage, death threats against senior executives, theft and damage to critical infrastructure.

In the past year, the company has opened 16 cases with the police relating to sabotage, two of which have been linked to Eskom employees.

Great effort went into tracking these suspects, said Pillay, and the evidence gathering process was intensive.

Only one sabotage case has been enrolled in court. It involves subcontractor Simon Shongwe, who allegedly tampered with essential infrastructure and electricity supply and trespassed on Eskom property.

He was arrested on November 16 after he allegedly removed the oil drain plug from a bearing, causing oil burners to trip repeatedly at Camden power station. Shongwe was granted R6,000 bail in the Ermelo magistrate’s court.

Pillay highlighted three cases in which bail was set at an “unjustifiably” low amount.

“On October 17, an Eskom employee was arrested for theft of oil at Tutuka power station and was released on R2,000 bail. Three people were arrested on November 9 for theft of coal at Kendal power station and granted R3,000 bail each. On November 11, a suspect was arrested for a bomb threat and was granted bail of R3,000.”

In the most recent case, charges against a truck driver, arrested on November 20 in Mpumalanga for the theft of coal destined for Camden power station, were dropped.

Makeke said the charge was based on evidence that the coal he delivered to Camden was different or inferior to the coal that was loaded at Umsimbithi coal mine.

“The matter was not placed on the court roll due to insufficient evidence. The docket has now been assigned to the organised crime advocate and the investigations are continuing. The matter will be enrolled once investigations are completed,” she said.

Makeke did not respond Pillay’s claims of Eskom having to micromanage cases and suspects being awarded “ridiculous” bail sums.

She said the NPA had a “specialised unit”

Our specialised units are highly skilled to deal with complex cases

NPA

for organised crime in all the provinces, which guides investigations and conducts prosecutions.

“While the issue of a special tribunal has been proposed by Eskom, the current status reflects that law enforcement and prosecutors are adequately skilled to deal with these offences.”

But Pillay, who has worked in various divisions in Eskom for the past 18 years, said frustration was mounting.

She said the government had dragged its feet when it came to implementing policies and measures that would prevent crimes against state-owned entities.

“On the scrap metal front, for example, we have been issuing position papers, briefing notes to ministries to indicate what needed to be done. It took more than five years for us to get to a point where a scrap metal policy is being reviewed at present, and while I commend the department, this is an ongoing process where we have to repeat ourselves at every platform and forum we go to,” says Pillay.

On Wednesday, trade, industry & competition minister Ebrahim Patel announced a six-month ban on the export of copper and copper alloys in an effort to curb vandalism of public infrastructure.

Researchers estimate the cost of the theft at Eskom, Transnet, the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa and in the mining industry exceeds R47bn a year.

Pillay said death threats towards senior executives have become a daily occurrence.

“I constantly receive threats on my life. But I am undeterred [and] committed to my job here at Eskom.

“It is a very tough job. A number of our executives are considered high-level risks and we have certain individuals in protection programmes.”