Pretoria – The City of Tshwane has allegedly procured coal that does not ignite for its Pretoria West power station.
A senior employee stationed at the power station has told News24 that tons of coal has been shelved and new ones ordered after it was discovered it does not ignite.
“The coal that was brought in does not burn. Right now it has been put aside as new one [coal] is being delivered,” he said.
The city has admitted to the coal not igniting, but would not comment on why the coal was not returned to the supplier.
The source said the coal was bought from Lurco Coal, one of Eskom’s suppliers. It is alleged that this was the second batch of deficient coal supplied by the same company.
City spokesperson Lindela Mashigo confirmed they had procured coal from the company. He explained that the station uses high calorific value (CV) of coal. Mashigo said in order to be able to get the right quality of coal mixture, the company was requested to deliver a certain quantity to be tested at the station.