South Africa’s Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin said on Friday that he had never referred to saboteurs at Koeberg. Speaking at a press conference at Koeberg, outside Cape Town, he said this had been media spin.
But, he said, ”everything points to someone placing it (a bolt in the turbine) there”. He said there was every indication it was human instrumentality. ”I did not use the term sabotage,” Erwin said. He assured the public that the reactor was ”a high-security zone”.
South African electricity utility Eskom has procured the required spare parts, to return the Unit One generator at Koeberg to full functionality, from a French company, Electricite de France, Erwin said. He said the parts, including a rotor and stator bars, would be brought by barge from France, most likely within a month.
Erwin said President Thabo Mbeki had been in contact with the French to ease the passage of the relevant parts. Eskom Chief Executive Thulani Gcabashe said: ”We plan to synchronise Koeberg Unit One to the power grid in the middle of May and commence the refuelling and maintenance outage of Unit Two in the third week of May.”
There will therefore be a week’s overlap between starting the operation of Unit One and the shutdown of Unit Two. Eskom acknowledged that power cuts were likely at peak times in areas of the Western Cape, including Cape Town, in the morning and in the afternoon.
Over the next three months, Eskom will run Koeberg Unit Two at a decreasing power output until the refuelling and maintenance outage towards the end of May.
During this time the balance of electricity needs of the Western Cape will be supplied via the high-voltage transmissions lines, as well as peaking generation in the region. It is estimated that during peak periods there will be a shortfall of some 300MW.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance intends submitting parliamentary questions over government statements that the problems at the Koeberg power station were the result of sabotage.
The questions pertain to the timing of the statement by Erwin and his Minerals and Energy colleague, Lindiwe Hendricks, DA spokesman Hendrik Schmidt said on Thursday.
”The innuendo-laden claims about sabotage at Koeberg, conveniently made on the eve of the local government election by ministers Alec Erwin and Lindiwe Hendricks, demonstrate with startling clarity the irresponsible lengths that the African National Congress is willing to go to cover up its own incompetence,” he said.
”This attempt to distract attention from the real issues by way of shadowy insinuations smacks of apartheid-era political tactics. The DA will submit parliamentary questions to government that take ministers Erwin and Hendricks to task over the substance and timing of their claims,” Schmidt said.
The DA would ask, among other things, whether government was aware of any reasons why Gcabashe downplayed the possibility of sabotage at Koeberg in January this year when he was asked about it by reporters.
The DA also wanted to know when the possibility of sabotage at Koeberg first come to government’s attention, whether President Thabo Mbeki had been informed about the possibility of sabotage at
Koeberg, and why the investigation was announced on the eve of the municipal election. — I-Net Bridge and Sapa