Written by Umamah Bakharia 

The DA has written to the National Police Commissioner General Sehlahle Fannie Masemola to request the activation of the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure or NATJOINTS, and the deployment of SAPS tactical units to enforce the court interdict granted to Eskom against striking workers at its power plants.

Eskom has made an alarming admission that unprotected strike action by Eskom employees at various power stations, poses a risk to 4 000 megawatts of generation capacity.

Speaking to Radio Islam, DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises, Ghaleb Cachalia says [we] are being held to ransom by sabotagers, union demands, and poor performance and maintenance within Eskom.

“We are faced with a crisis as we are on stage 4, we might even go to stage 6 and something needs to be done,” says Cachalia. The DA has called for a state of disaster to be called with regards to Eskom and the investigation into the sabotage of Eskom.

“If the government doesn’t act when there is a crisis like this then I don’t know when it’s going to act,” says Cachalia. He gives the example of the July riots when the government was too late in its response to the violence that erupted. So far, there has been no response from the letter that was sent to the commissioner.