South Africa to Provide Eskom With Protection: Report

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa will deploy police and intelligence officers at Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.’s power stations to prevent sabotage as the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa implements a plan to end outages and help the utility recover, the Sunday Times reported.

Eskom, which provides more than 90 percent of South Africa’s power, has been rationing electricity to the already fragile system, hurting Africa’s most industrialized economy and weighing on the rand. Ramaphosa’s plan to split the utility into three divisions, which could lead to job cuts, has led to protests from unions.

There is widespread and well-organized opposition to Ramaphosa’s leadership ahead of elections scheduled for May, the Johannesburg-based newspaper said. Unions staged a nationwide protest against job losses on Wednesday and are planning a second demonstration in Cape Town on Feb. 19, a day before Finance Minister Tito Mboweni presents the national budget.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in Johannesburg at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, James Amott, Steve Geimann

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