Security at Cape Town’s Koeberg nuclear power station is in need of a complete rethink, critics have argued following the government’s announcement that one of the nuclear facility’s generators had been sabotaged.
”Three years ago Greenpeace managed to get people into Koeberg undetected,” Institute of Security Studies military analyst Henry Boshoff said, ”and now the government is claiming sabotage. Maybe its time to re-look security.”
In 2002, six Greenpeace activists managed to enter the Koeberg facility and display a large green banner saying ”Nukes out of Africa”, before they were arrested.
Boshoff said that the National Key Points Act governs Koeberg’s security, and although this previously fell under the jurisdiction of the South African National Defence Force, it was now a duty of the South African Police Services (SAPS).
National Nuclear Regulator spokesperson Phil Nkhwashu said that Eskom was ultimately responsible for the implementation of security measures at Koeberg and if sabotage had indeed taken place, it was a major security lapse on behalf of the parastatal.
”In terms of national requirements, we expect Eskom to maintain security of certain instruments as part of their licence conditions,” said Nkhwashu. ”They produce a document outlining how they will maintain this and we approve it. We are very concerned; nuclear safety must be maintained at all costs.”
This week, Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin announced that a bolt that had been left in one of the Koeberg generators had caused the power outages in Cape Town over the past month had resulted from an act of sabotage and that police had identified suspects.
”Let me be very clear on this. The bolt that caused the generator’s destruction did not get there by accident,” said Erwin.
The announcement created a political furore, with the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Cape Town, Helen Zille, accusing the African National Congress of electioneering and allowing South Africa’s crucial infrastructure to collapse.
”For the ANC to cry ‘sabotage’ the night before crucial local government elections shows just how desperate it is to disguise its incompetence and mismanagement,” she said.
Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu confirmed that Koeberg falls under the National Key Points Act, but refused to comment on the sabotage investigation, referring the Mail & Guardian to the SAPS.