Soldiers deployed to guard Eskom power plants amid energy crisis
South Africa has begun deploying the military to protect the country's electricity plants as the long-running power crisis worsens, Eskom and the presidency said Saturday.
"Eskom can confirm that the SANDF is being deployed," the energy firm said in confirmation.
It "has received deployments at 4 sites this afternoon", the message added.
According to President Cyril Ramaphosa's spokesman Vincent Magwenya a minimum of 10 soldiers would be deployed in the initial phase at each station. Further deployments are in the pipeline.
The move was "in response to the growing threat of sabotage, theft, vandalism and corruption" at coal and diesel powered at power generating plants, he said.
Anger is growing among South Africans, who are now having to do deal with load shedding several times a day, sometimes totalling up to 11-and-half hours a day.
Earlier this week Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter announced his resignation, citing crime and corruption as the main obstacles he faced in trying to turn around the troubled state-owned entity.
