A sophisticated crime syndicate – in cahoots with Eskom officials, police and trucking companies – is stealing millions of rands worth of fuel by exploiting a design flaw at the Kriel Power Station in Mpumalanga. | amaBhungane
Jaco Marais/Netwerk24
But as fuel prices have soared, fuel theft and cross-border fuel smuggling is increasingly attractive, placing even more pressure on Eskom when the utility is already struggling with crippling electricity blackouts., located between the towns of Ogies and Kriel some 100km east of Johannesburg, was commissioned in 1979. At the time it was the largest coal-powered station in the southern hemisphere, capable of generating three gigawatts of power. But it has a fatal design flaw.
According to three drivers amaBhungane spoke to, a full tanker is usually worth between R500 000 and R1 million, depending on the size of a tanker and the type of fuel. On the black market, the minimum price for the load would be R250 000. Payments were received and made via cash deposits at automatic teller machines, making them difficult to trace.
Responding to claims that there were no tight controls and accountability on how much fuel was ordered, Eskom said that fuel was ordered through"National Control" via a daily planning process. Controllers at the trucking companies will assign favoured drivers to deliver fuel to Kriel, usually from the Natref refinery in Pretoria. Early in the morning or the previous night, the controller will alert the drivers about a black market order.
Instead, the truck driver calls the illegal buyer and waits at the side of the road for a small private car to appear.But in this case the driver switches off the live camera, allowing a passenger from the small car to jump inside. The passenger is equipped with a signal jammer and it is alleged that officials at the trucking company, who ought to be monitoring the cameras, turn a blind eye to the lost signal.
Reports of fuel stolen in transit have also surfaced elsewhere in the region, such as the Maputo Corridor, where Mozambique, Eswatini and South Africa converge.
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