South Africa has deployed its army at four power stations as theft and vandalism adds to the inability of state-owned utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to meet electricity demand.
Members of the South African National Defence Force were deployed at the Majuba, Camden, Grootvlei and Tutuka coal-fired power stations in the eastern Mpumalanga province on Saturday afternoon, the utility’s media desk said in a WhatsApp message. Presidency spokesman Vincent Magwenya didn’t immediately respond to a text message seeking comment.
Eskom is currently removing 6,000 megawatts — a process known locally as load-shedding — from the national electricity grid, resulting in outages of as long four hours two or three times a day. It has implemented power cuts on 191 days of 2022 as it tries to balance demand and supply that’s hampered by aging plants that continuously break down.
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(With assistance from Monique Vanek.)
