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South Africa is taking steps to protect its electricity plants as blackouts have become routine and public ire towards the administration is growing. It is deploying military guards in various plants across the country as a preventive measure
South Africa is taking steps to protect its electricity plants as blackouts have become routine and public ire towards the administration is growing. It is deploying military guards in various plants across the country as a preventive measure. Recently, as reported by www.trendsnafrica.com, Eskom’s chief-Andre de Ruyter has put in his papers and his resignation was accepted but asked to continue till March end. Eskom is looking for a replacement.
The move to deploy forces, according to a presidential spokesperson, was in response to the growing threat of sabotage, theft, vandalism, and corruption at coal and diesel-powered plants. Any disruption in the power supply will heavily impact the functioning of trade and industry, besides pushing the common man into great difficulties.
While announcing the resignation, the Eskom CEO said crime and corruption as the main obstacles he faced to turning around the troubled state-owned company. Established in 1923, the utility is the largest electricity-producing unit in Africa and operates a number of power stations in the country. The company has generation, transmission, and distribution units under its fold and accounts for 95% of the electricity produced in South Africa.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/eskom-ceo-resigns-as-sa-faces-massive-power-cuts/
https://trendsnafrica.com/south-african-government-contemplating-taking-over-part-of-eskoms-debt/
Efforts to revamp the aging plant by unbundling the operations and creating separate structures for generation, transmission, and distribution were met with stiff resistance from the workers apprehending the loss of jobs. The state-owned company was also in news for political interferences that led to corruption during the previous regimes.
