Koeberg 'sabotage': Police mum
2006-02-28 16:54
Pretoria - Police would not comment immediately on Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin's statement that damage at Koeberg nuclear power plant was not accidental but deliberate.
"We reserve the right to comment," was all that captain Dennis Adriao of the national police commissioner's office was prepared to say.
Earlier in the day, Erwin said the damage to one of the generators at Koeberg in December was deliberate.
"Let me be very clear on this. The bolt that caused the generator's destruction did not get there by accident," he said.
One of Koeberg's two generators has been down since December, causing major power cuts in the Western Cape in the past two months.
Erwin said the national intelligence agency (NIA) and the police were investigating.
Erwin said: "The investigation is ongoing and we will bring criminal charges against individuals soon."
'Curious coincidence'
The police also were looking at other power cuts that could have been caused by sabotage.
"These events curiously coincide with an important process in the democratic calendar of the country," Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks said in reference to Wednesday's local-government elections.
"It has become clear that the recent events cannot just be linked inadequate transmission or generation capacity. Clearly, other forces are at play here," she said.
Erwin said negotiations were being concluded with French electricity supplier EDF for parts to fix the broken generator.
On Tuesday morning, Koeberg's remaining generator shut down automatically when a high-voltage line tripped.
Power cuts of two hours
It would take some time to bring the generator back up to full capacity, said Eskom Board chairman Valli Moosa.
Until then, Cape Town suburbs would go without power for periods of up to two hours.
"The Western Cape uses, on average, 3 700 megawattsbut we can supply only about 2 200MW. Once Koeberg is up, the shortage will decrease," said Moosa.
Eskom teams were working on repairing the high-voltage line, he said. He hoped Koeberg would be running by the end of Tuesday.
- SAPA