Eskom releases photos of sabotage - says it nearly caused stage 6 power cuts

Kodi

Kodi

Expert Member
Joined
Jan 27, 2021
Messages
1,293
How will cutting a pylon affect generation capacity?
 
TheChamp

TheChamp

Honorary Master
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
57,360
Tman543 said:
I don't know hey, how does a guy/ a group of guys angle grind 6 steel stays without anyone noticing or hearing a thing? It would take atleast 30 mins. Atleast one by stander should of seen something.

Might be Eskom employees themselves looking for a reason not to work
Click to expand...
Many incidents of this nature are usually from contractors working for the company, you never know these days because it looks like it's not even a requirement for the cars to be properly branded, workers don't wear marked clothes, so next time you see a bakkie next to some infrastructure, it could be legitimate workers or criminals.

I don't know about Eskom but such jobs are usually done by contractors and not full time employees, plus I am sure Eskom workers are not hungry for overtime, they must actually be tired of it.
 
Last edited:
CrypticZA

CrypticZA

Expert Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2019
Messages
3,046
Kodi said:
How will cutting a pylon affect generation capacity?
Click to expand...
If you read the article it stated "De Ruyter showed images of a power pylon that had collapsed along the distribution lines that fed power to the Lethabo Power Station’s coal conveyor belts."

Those towers were powering the conveyor belt which feeds the coal which generates the electricity :)
 
Howdy

Howdy

Expert Member
Joined
Jul 26, 2021
Messages
4,830
PaulMurkin said:
Sabotage... proven.
Now, if De Ruyter has any balls, brass or otherwise, he would act... but he can't, his hands are tied and now he probably has a target painted on his back
Click to expand...
What can he do? Do you want Andre to buy R5 rifles and Rooivalk choppers to go and hunt these guys down?

At best Eskom can open a case. It's then up to law enforcement.

We already saw how LE struggles to trace and hold those responsible for the July barbecue responsible, Cele's band not even being able to find criminals in potholes. Now imagine if Andre acts: "Evil racist Eskom CEO marginalizing/murdering poor terrorists".
 
Jet-Fighter7700

Jet-Fighter7700

Honorary Master
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Messages
31,618
so let me ask a legit question, if that pylon had fallen, would we be running around with Medieval torches, looting the nearest Spar, and killing people for a bottle of water?

or would the network have survived, and recovered?
 
ToxicBunny

ToxicBunny

Oi! Leave me out of this...
Joined
Apr 8, 2006
Messages
113,505
eg2505 said:
so let me ask a legit question, if that pylon had fallen, would we be running around with Medieval torches, looting the nearest Spar, and killing people for a bottle of water?

or would the network have survived, and recovered?
Click to expand...

The network would have survived, and be repaired relatively quickly (day or two). We would suffer through Stage 4-6 LS during the period though.
 
CrypticZA

CrypticZA

Expert Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2019
Messages
3,046
eg2505 said:
so let me ask a legit question, if that pylon had fallen, would we be running around with Medieval torches, looting the nearest Spar, and killing people for a bottle of water?

or would the network have survived, and recovered?
Click to expand...
The article states we would have gone from loadshedding stage 4 to stage 6 since that power plant would have gone down...
 
TheChamp

TheChamp

Honorary Master
Joined
Feb 26, 2011
Messages
57,360
Howdy said:
What can he do? Do you want Andre to buy R5 rifles and Rooivalk choppers to go and hunt these guys down?

At best Eskom can open a case. It's then up to law enforcement.

We already saw how LE struggles to trace and hold those responsible for the July barbecue responsible, Cele's band not even being able to find criminals in potholes. Now imagine if Andre acts: "Evil racist Eskom CEO marginalizing/murdering poor terrorists".
Click to expand...
Reminds of those days we wanted Cyril to show that he is serious about corruption by arresting those suspected of corruption and prosecuting them.
 
A

Arthur

Honorary Master
Joined
Aug 7, 2003
Messages
26,880
It's probably worthwhile offering a large reward (R1m or more) for info leading to conviction, with perhaps id protection...
 
ToxicBunny

ToxicBunny

Oi! Leave me out of this...
Joined
Apr 8, 2006
Messages
113,505
eg2505 said:
but I mean a similar event happened to the 1st world USA, and it was bad for them as well,
en.wikipedia.org

Northeast blackout of 2003 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

how close were we to something like this?
Click to expand...

No, its not a similar event....

To make the event similar, would have required the Eskom NOC not being aware of Lethabo being dead in the water and the grid largely collapsing.

And even with that, it only took 2 days for power to be fully restored, and the vast majority of power was restored within 6 hours
 
AstroTurf

AstroTurf

Lucky Shot
Joined
May 13, 2010
Messages
30,534
OCP said:
I doubt a cordless angle grinder would be able to cut through that many supports so likely they would have had a portable generator going on top of that.

Some serious planning and support went into this.....
Click to expand...
portable grinder would do it easily, the stays are mild steel.
 
Senor

Senor

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2018
Messages
787
Hearing it was 2 Chinese guys trying to get their kites back down. Damn these Chinese, anytime you hear of destruction to infrastructure, you just know it's them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top