South Africa will deploy police and intelligence officers at Eskom power stations to prevent sabotage as the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa implements a plan to end outages and help the utility recover, the Sunday Times reported.
Eskom, which provides more than 90% of South Africa’s power, has been rationing electricity to the already fragile system, hurting the economy and weighing on the rand. Ramaphosa’s plan to split the utility into three divisions, which could lead to job cuts, has led to protests from unions.
There is widespread and well-organised opposition to Ramaphosa’s leadership ahead of elections scheduled for May, the newspaper said. Unions staged a nationwide protest against job losses on Wednesday and are planning a second demonstration in Cape Town on 19 February, a day before finance minister Tito Mboweni presents the national budget. — Reported by Paul Burkhardt, (c) 2019 Bloomberg LP
