\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n
Kristen van Schie <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
ENVIRONMENTAL NGOs have called for an independent investigation into allegations that Eskom hired a security company to spy on them \u2013 and they won\u2019t be playing nice until it happens. <\/p>\n
Media reports revealed that the energy provider had signed a two-year contract with Swartberg Intelligence Support Services, from June 27, 2011 until June 28 this year. <\/p>\n
Swartberg was to provide services at Medupi, where one of the world\u2019s largest coal-fired power stations was being built, a project deeply opposed by NGOs which favour clean energy alternatives, and was delayed by about a year because of labour unrest. <\/p>\n
Documents leaked to the Business Times had alleged that Swartberg proceeded to collect personal information on employees, unions, political parties and NGOs, all while infiltrating the community and using upliftment projects to alter their views on Medupi. <\/p>\n
Yesterday, Earthlife, Greenpeace and groundWork temporarily pulled out of Eskom\u2019s NGO forum in protest against the \u201cpossibly illegal\u201d behaviour. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is extremely unethical to use the disguise of community engagement to spy on the same community,\u201d said Greenpeace Africa executive director Michael O\u2019Brien-Onyeka. <\/p>\n
Earthlife Africa\u2019s Joburg project co-ordinator, Tristen Taylor, said the actions were reminiscent of the apartheid era.<\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cIndividuals and organisations have protected rights, like freedom from this sort of intrusive behaviour,\u201d he said.<\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cEskom represents the state, and the state has no business in conducting undercover investigations,\u201d Taylor said.<\/em> <\/p>\n Eskom had since terminated the contract with Swartberg and launched its own investigation \u201cto determine whether any laws were broken\u201d.<\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cThis behaviour is unacceptable and not in line with our values as a company,\u201d said Eskom chief executive Brian Dames. <\/em> <\/p>\n \u201cOur people need to build trust with all our stakeholders.\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n Apology <\/p>\n Not good enough, said the NGOs, which wanted all confidential information obtained by Swartberg to be handed over, a public apology from Eskom, and for the senior management \u2013 including Dames \u2013 to be held to account. <\/p>\n They also called for independent investigations by the public protector and energy regulator Nersa. <\/p>\n Neither Nersa nor Swartberg responded to queries. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t personally believe Eskom has the credibility to police itself, so an internal investigation is not good enough,\u201d said O\u2019Brien-Onyeka. <\/p>\n The NGOs said they would rejoin Eskom\u2019s forum once the matter had been resolved, but would continue with their research and community engagement until then. <\/p>\n \u201cIf their intention was to get us to stop doing what we\u2019re doing \u2013 no, it\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d said Taylor. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kristen van Schie ENVIRONMENTAL NGOs have called for an independent investigation into allegations that Eskom hired a security company to spy on them \u2013 and they won\u2019t be playing nice until it happens. Media reports revealed that the energy provider had signed a two-year contract with Swartberg Intelligence Support Services, from June 27, 2011 until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-18065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}