Eskom employee found guilty of theft — facing jail time or a R10,000 fine
The South African Police Service (SAPS) arrested Katlego Twala, an employee at Eskom’s Tutuka Power Station, for stealing drums of hydraulic fuel oil in October 2022.
Twala appeared in the Standerton Regional Court on a theft charge and has been sentenced to one year in prison or to pay a fine of R10,000. Twala was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.
Eskom said Twala was involved in stealing five drums of fire-resistant hydraulic fuel oil from the power station.
“Eskom welcomes the sanction by the court and would like to thank the South African Police Service, its own internal investigators and the National Prosecuting Authority for the positive outcome,” it added.
Acting general manager for security at Eskom Botse Sikhwitshi reiterated the power utility’s zero-tolerance approach to employee dishonesty and illegal activity.
“Eskom has a zero-tolerance stance on acts of dishonesty and views the conduct of the employee as unacceptable,” said Sikhwitshi.
“We will continue working on flushing out the minority that cast a shadow on the organisation.”
The power utility urges the public to report illegal activity, including illegal electricity sales, fraud, and coal, oil, and diesel theft. It added that this can be done anonymously.
“Eskom and its law enforcement partners have been hard at work to bring to book those involved in dodgy dealings at its power stations,” the state-owned power utility said.
Eskom’s Tutuka power station
In October 2023, it was revealed that an Eskom Rotek Industries (ERI) sub-contractor was arrested for bribery at the Camden Power Station.
The sub-contractor allegedly claimed that a truck driver had delivered a load of coal mixed with rocks.
Eskom said the accused entered the truck cab and produced three pieces of rocks, indicating they were part of the coal delivery.
“He reportedly informed the driver that rocks were a problem and that he was grounding all the trucks. Three trucks were in the queue at the time,” the power utility said.
They then tried to solicit a bribe of R6,000 from the truck driver’s company’s supervisor for the three trucks.
The supervisor refused the suspect’s demands, but the trucks were allowed to offload the coal anyway.
“The suspect had since confessed to soliciting a bribe and was arrested and detained at the Ermelo Police Station,” Eskom said.
“He was subsequently charged with bribery and appeared before the Ermelo Magistrate’s Court on 12 October 2023.”
Just over a month earlier, Eskom revealed three arrests for fraud and theft of coal were made in September 2023.
The driver allegedly offloaded 34.9 tonnes of coal destined for the Majuba Power Station at an illegal coal yard. When questioned about the situation, the driver said he had delivered the coal to the power station.
He was also able to produce a weighbridge ticket that was allegedly issued at Majuba’s weighbridge. Eskom determined that two weighbridge clerks fraudulently created the ticket.
The two clerks and the truck driver were arrested and held at the Blinkpan Police Station, pending a court appearance in October 2023. They were later released on R2,000 bail.
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