Parts of Mbombela were without electricity for more than 12 hours due to cable theft that resulted in a section of cable getting burned on May 12.

According to the City of Mbombela spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, as a result of the theft they had to replace 4X11 joints and more than 40 meters of cable.

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They also had to replace the burned cables.

“On behalf of the city, we would like to apologize for the inconvenience caused. We also call on community members to assist in safeguarding the infrastructure, because cable theft is costing the municipality a lot of money that was intended for other services to the public. We request that anyone with information about the people responsible for the theft come forward or report it to their nearest police station,” he said.

Ngala added that the affected areas were the main waterworks, Vintonia, Riverside Industrial, ARC, and the Botanical Gardens area. The power failure started at 06:30 was restored around 20:00.