Metrorail commuters were left stranded on Friday morning after cables were stolen from the railway line connecting Tembisa, Kempton Park and Pretoria.
The cables were later found stashed in a house in Ivory Park.
Spokesperson for Gauteng Metrorail Lillian Mofokeng said it would take over five hours to repair the damage and get train services up and running again.
“We received a call at about 2am and were alerted there were people stealing our cables. Our team swiftly responded to the scene. The suspects were tracked down but managed to escape. We found the cables already cut and ready to be sold,” explained Mofokeng.
“The cables may look so little but the damage is severe, because it means that our passengers will be left stranded and we will need to source manpower to fix the damage,” she continued.
The Tembisan has since established that the suspects just evaded doing jail-time after they had paid a R6 000 fine for the same offense of stealing cables.
Metrorail committed to fix the damage with the speed of lightning so its passengers have means to transportation.
