South Africa has deployed the army near power plants to prevent sabotage as the energy crisis deepens and blackouts increase, energy company Eskom and the presidency said on Saturday. Power outages have been a regular occurrence in the continent’s most industrialized country for the past fifteen years, but the situation has worsened this year, with electricity supplier Eskom lasting several hours a day.
“Eskom can confirm that the SANDF (South African National Defense Force) is being deployed,” said the state power utility. Eskom “hosted deployments in four locations,” it added in a statement.
Record blackouts this year
The purpose of the army’s deployment is to prevent “sabotage” and the “theft” of coal and diesel from power plants, Vincent Magwenyale had previously told the press on the sidelines of the African National Congress (ANC) conference from the door of the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.
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Record power outages this year have cost the South African economy hundreds of millions of dollars and destabilized trade and industry. They provoke the anger of the population, the repeated cuts totaling more than 11 hours on certain days.
Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter announced his resignation this week, citing corruption and crime as the biggest challenges facing the electric utility.