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Eskom suspends Koeberg General Manager
- Alleges performance issues
- Unit 1 of the Koeberg plant out of service since January
South Africa state-owned utility Eskom has suspended the General Manager of its Koeberg nuclear power plant over allegations of non-performance. This comes as Unit 1 of the plant went out of service for maintenance in January this year and has since not returned to service despite a deadline of May 2021.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha confirmed the suspension of Velaphi Ntuli. “He has been suspended for performance issues on that power station, and in accordance with Eskom’s policies, Mr Ntuli will be charged for non-performance and in that process will get an opportunity to respond and be heard, in an objective process”, Mantshantsha said.
Eskom expressed concerns on the performance of the plant in a statement. “Eskom leadership has been concerned with outage performance at Koeberg nuclear power plant, and the recent outage on Unit 1 has again been plagued with delays resulting in significant slippage on the return to service date”, the statement read.
Ntuli will be charged with non-performance and has been replaced with Riedewaan Bakardien until the matter is resolved. The plant is expected to return to full service by the third week in June.