"ESKOM did not spy", Says Swartberg

While the Medupi Power Station Project site remained closed this week due to continued strike action by Numsa members, the Business Times reported on Sunday that e-mails forwarded to the newspaper revealed that Eskom “used spy tactics to mitigate risks related to labour unrest at Medupi.”
According to the report, Eskom contracted Swartberg Intelligence Support Services (ISS) to spy on employees, communities, unions, political parties, green lobbies and government officials.
The article states that security personnel infiltrated community events and initiatives such as social upliftment projects to gather information and influence people’s attitudes towards the project and company management. The report also claims that local scouts were recruited to keep an ear to the ground.
Northern News spoke to the MD of Swartberg ISS, Lukas Swartberg on Monday who denied the allegations saying: “We do not recruit people to infiltrate institutions, we identify risks pertaining to our client and according to our assessment provide suggestions to minimise security risks.”
He admitted to employees of Swartberg attending public meetings held by various groups. “We often monitor these meetings to ascertain if there are any potential risks that could compromise the stability of the project. These were meetings that were open to all members of the public”
When asked whether he thinks his methods are ethical he replied: “They are extremely ethical. We do not task people to infiltrate anywhere in order to get our information. The information gathered was from forums that were open to the public. From this, a risk assessment is developed to understand the risk to the project. All information gathered by Swartberg ISS was shared with the South African Police Services.”
Sunday’s article also quotes Lephalale Mayor, Jack Maeko who reportedly hosted an ANC rally in Shongoane with minister Dipuo Peters last year and told residents to “get educated to avoid white people at Medupi from f***ing them around, since the white people at Medupi were uneducated.”
Swartberg told Northern News that elements in the report were fabricated and that as far as he knows Maeko is in good standing with Eskom and the Medupi project.
In response to the quote, the spokesperson for the Lephalale Municipality, Victor Monyepao said on behalf of the Mayor: “The allegation is baseless, malicious and misleading. It is true that Mayor Maeko is very passionate about education and uses his public addresses to encourage Lephalale youth to get educated; but to allege that he said white people at Medupi are uneducated is not true. It is also not true that the Mayor has ever shared platform with energy minister Dipuo Peters at the Shongoane rally, as the minister has never attended a rally at Shongoane last year. The Mayor intends to meet with Eskom to discuss the unfounded allegations as it seems that Eskom commissioned the report.”
At the Medupi site this week police were actively searching for bombs at units 4 and 6 as several bomb threats were made telephonically. According to police spokesperson, W.O. Frans Mokoena, police have been on site since 03:00 Monday morning. “This is an incredibly big site and we want to make sure that there is no threat to employees at Medupi,” said Mokoena.
Numsa also released a statement on Tuesday saying: “The purported claims that workers as led by Numsa are being used to sabotage the long-overdue completion of Medupi Power Station are totally untrue, and we view them as an odorous attack on the leadership collective.”
It states that a “significant” number of workers had had their bonuses and salaries docked during the December holidays period, but when the matter was raised they have “endured all manner of victimisation, including a lock-out, which has led to this ongoing strike and violent unrest at the power station over the past few days.”