Late last year, South Africa was repeatedly impacted by power cuts, including the unprecedented implementation of Stage 6 load shedding. The crisis forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to cut short an official visit to Egypt to address the country. At a media briefing in mid-December he said he had been informed that sabotage had contributed to the power outages. 

"[The sabotage] came at a time when we were having all these problems and just added to the many other problems," he said. 

Eskom later clarified that the act of alleged sabotage had taken place at Tutuka power station in Mpumalanga. The power utility said an instrument monitoring the status of boilers – where coal is burned to produced steam – had been tampered with, forcing the boilers to automatically shut down for safety reasons.  

Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said on Tuesday that an investigation into the sabotage was still underway. 

"We can't talk about investigations while they are underway. We do not put timeframes. We can't give details of what we are doing or where we are. Once we have concluded it we will engage the authorities on its findings," he said. 

Fin24