Johannesburg - The Lengths the company contracted to spy on environmental organisations challenging Eskom’s use of coal went to in gathering information remained a mystery yesterday.
When Eskom made a public apology to the three NGOs that had been spied on – Greenpeace, Earthlife Africa Jhb and groundWork – there were no details of what tactics Swartberg Intelligence Support Services had resorted to.
However, Tristen Taylor, the project co-ordinator of Earthlife Africa Jhb, told Business Report that it looked like Swartberg had carried out some telephone surveillance.
But Melita Steel, Greenpeace’s energy campaigner, said there was clear infiltration of the NGOs, but no telephone taping seemed to have taken place. “It appears that Swartberg didn’t have the capabilities of monitoring phones and emails.”
She said Swartberg had gathered personal information on individuals. A lot of the information came from public sources such as media reports, but the company had also attended meetings and workshops held by the NGOs.
The NGOs discovered in February that Swartberg had been contracted to spy on them. When this surfaced, Eskom terminated the contract with Swartberg and commissioned law firm Bowman Gilfillan to investigate the matter, as espionage and spying are illegal in South Africa.
But Eskom said yesterday that it was not its management, but Medupi security management, that had entered into the contract with Swartberg.
The utility also said the intention was to be informed of any threats to workers and property at Medupi following civil unrest at the construction site in May 2011.
The three NGOs have been challenging Eskom’s decision to build new coal-fired power stations, wanting it to invest in cleaner energies instead.
They challenged the World Bank’s loan to Eskom for the development of Medupi, and were the reason behind the bank’s investigation of the project, which found that key environmental, social and climate impacts were not adequately addressed when it awarded a $3.75 billion (R38.8bn) loan to Eskom.
Earthlife Africa Jhb disclosed that Eskom had used illegal sand mining and informed communities in Lephalale, Limpopo, where the Medupi power station is being constructed, that the construction was affecting water flow from the local river.
When the NGOs discovered that they were being spied on in February, reports suggested that Eskom was trying to gather information it could use to influence the communities against groundwork and Greenpeace, in its favour.
But Steel said looking at the report, it appeared that there was no attempt on Eskom’s part to gather information it could use against the NGOs.
Swartberg “had a very loose interpretation of their contract and thought they had a broader mandate. They did things they were not contracted to do,” Steel said.
But she said it was, at some stage, reported to Eskom that Swartberg had infiltrated the NGOs and this never reached top level management.
The report and all documents gathered by Swartberg have been handed to the SAPS and the National Prosecuting Authority will decide if Swartberg should be prosecuted.
Eskom had not responded to questions by publication time. - Business Report