Sabotage

About the book

On a stormy evening in November 2021, unknown saboteurs neatly cut eight steel supports and toppled a small pylon near Lethabo Power Station in the Free State. It was felled in such a way as to take out a back-up power line, leaving coal conveyors at the power station without electricity. ‘This was clearly now an act of sabotage,’ declared Eskom’s chief executive officer André de Ruyter, ‘and I think we can call it as such.’ Who was behind this, and what is their ultimate goal?

Since his appointment in January 2020, De Ruyter has faced intense opposition from within the power utility as he attempts to clean up corruption and return the electricity company to a semblance of its former glory. He is not alone. Chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer and other...