Jan Oberholzer: Eskom chief challenges Ramaphosa on ‘sabotage’ claims

Eskom’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) has come out all guns blazing this week, after he gave an impassioned interview to City Press about the failings of the utility. Jan Oberholzer may have just won a few people over with his frank stance on the way this recent load shedding crisis was handled.

Jan Oberholzer’s comments on Eskom

Speaking with honesty and unflinching clarity, Oberholzer pulled no punches – he blamed himself, and pointed the finger at a culture of greed and “12 years of neglect” at South Africa’s run-down power stations. He also made some pretty eye-opening remarks about the current state of the company:

• Jan Oberholzer confirmed the “Gupta-grade coal” Eskom are still working with is “a recipe for load shedding”.
• He revealed that Eskom workers “were in tears” when they were forced to implement Stage 6 power cuts.
• The COO also revealed his support for “partially privatising” Eskom, urging the firm to split into three units.

Jan Oberholzer vs Cyril Ramaphosa

It would prove to be his take on sabotage that made for the most intriguing read, though. Oberholzer has denied that sabotage was the main cause of Stage 6 load shedding last week – directly contradicting the words of President Ramaphosa at his recent media briefing:

“The main cause of the loadshedding was not sabotage or rain or whatever. After 12 years of neglecting our power stations, our system is unpredictable and unreliable. I’m not talking about putting on a band aid, I mean that real, deep maintenance is required.”

“The sabotage did not take us to Stage 6. There have been various incidents like this. I can’t say anything further, a case was opened with the SAPS. Eskom is captured. Since returning, I’ve realised that greed is a disease. Capture runs through the entire organisation, not just the leadership.”

Jan Oberholzer

Discrepencies in their accounts

Although there are some overlaps in what both men have said, it is Jan Oberholzer’s brutally honest take that could put Cyril’s platitudes to shame. The Eskom bigwig was quick to point to over-arching maintenance issues that have been a threat for the past decade – he went to a place Ramaphosa did not:

“What has also come out as a great concern, is that there has been sabotage. This is where someone in the Eskom system disconnected one of the instruments, that finally led to one of the boilers tripping, and us losing as much as 2 000MW. Through this, we got Stage 6 load shedding.”

“We must investigate the sabotage. I have directed that the acts be investigated and [Eskom] work with the South African Police Service and our other intelligence services, to find out exactly how anyone within Eskom could have disconnected the instruments.”

Cyril Ramaphosa, Wednesday 11 December

On Friday, cabinet is set to discuss the issue of allowing Independent Power Providers (IPPs) to generate and provide their own sources of energy, in a bid to take the crushing weight of demand away from Eskom.