Cable theft at Hendrina linked to load shedding

• Published date: 20 May 2022
• Publication title: South African Official News

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan says the incident of cable theft at the Hendrina Power Station, by people suspected to work at the plant, is along with several other incidents the reason that millions of South Africans have had to sit in the dark this week.

Gordhan said this when he tabled the department's Budget Vote at a plenary of the National Assembly on Friday.

'I was informed by the management of Eskom this morning that yet another incident has taken place at the Hendrina Power Station, where an important cable which is required to start a unit that was undergoing repairs and to get it synchronised with the rest of the system was cut.

'So these flexible copper bars which are required to synchronise this unit to the rest of the power infrastructure was stolen next to the generator and the reactor earth bars, as they are called, were also stolen by obviously people working within the power station,' he said.

This comes as Eskom has implemented stage 2 load shedding every day between 17:00 and 22:00 this week, with this escalating to stage 3 on Tuesday.

Gordhan this incident, along with other incidents, was the reason most South Africans found themselves without electricity this week.

'These are among other revelations that have occurred over the past few days - the corruption with the supply of oil, the cable that was cut at another power station a few days ago - these are all directly related to the load shedding that we experience today over and above other operational issues.

'I thought it was important that the public is aware of some of the challenges we face, something that I will return to,' he said.

Gordhan said the acts of 'the greedy, the corrupt, the bully, the counter-revolutionary set back our...