An act of “human error” rather than “sabotage” has been blamed for the failure of Koeberg’s Unit 1 generator on Febuary 27.

Addressing Parliament on the investigation, Public Enterprise Minister Alec Erwin refuted having said that the Koeberg incident was sabotage a day ahead of municipal elections, which were set to be heavily contested in the Western Cape.

He explained that there was no evidence of any organised group of any sort being the agent of an act of sabotage. “I did not say this and all attempts I made to our erudite media to say what I did say merely got me into deeper linguistic difficulties,” he told Parliament.

According to the Minister, three investigations had taken place. The first was by the police and the intelligence services, the second by Eskom and the third by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa).

Erwin stated that, as these probes were unable to conclusively establish whether the presence of the bolt and other foreign substance was a deliberate act, despite prima facie indications of such, government shared the view of Eskom CEO, Thulani Gcabashe, that the incident was due to human error.

Erwin explained that the existence of some discontent on the part of certain employees, who were involved in the refuelling operation, and a number of unauthorised communications from Eskom employees to outside parties, as well as the bolt that should not have been in the generator, were a cause particular concern at the time of the incident.

“A claim by some group that they were responsible was, however, quickly refuted by the evidence at hand,” the Minister explained, adding that no employees in Koeberg were the subject of suspicion and that he see no benefit in continuing the investigation as all possibilities available to the investigators had been exhausted. The Eskom investigation reaches the same conclusion.

Erwin said that he was satisfied with the investigations report that the events at Koeberg could not have been foreseen or easily prevented and that a fault could not be easily attributed to one or more persons. “In addition, we have reassessed the long-term supply security of the Western Cape and will strengthen that security in the coming years, especially as the damage that unreliable electricity can have on the economy has been amply demonstrated,”