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‘Cable theft and vandalism orgy’ hampers electricity repairs in Eldorado Park
At least 20 suspected cable thieves have been arrested with cables being stolen faster than they can be replaced.
The damage caused by the fire at Eldorado Park substation. Photo: Twitter/@CityPowerJhb
Angry residents of Ward 22 in Eldorado Park marched to the community’s substation on Tuesday morning over an ongoing electricity supply crisis.
Ward 22 residents said they’d been without power for 12 days now.
This ward is adjacent to Eldorado Park which had also been affected by a substation fire that left community members without power since Good Friday.
City Power management, led by Acting CEO, Tshifularo Mashava, met with the community of Pimville to address their electricity supply problem.
“It is correct that the residents of Pimville Ext.9, Kliptown Flats, have not had electricity for at least two weeks,” City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
Cable thieves on the rampage
But the repairs process has been hampered by vandalism and cable theft.
At least 5 cables were burnt, allegedly by copper thieves while they were ripping the infrastructure from the ground.
Part of Kliptown that is fed from Nancefield substation was affected.
“There were no fewer than 15 cable theft and vandalism incidents during the time of the fire repairs covering Eldorado substation and Nancefield substation,” said Mangena.
“Pimville area was also not spared from what appeared to be a cable theft and vandalism orgy, which led to one person being shot dead during community clashes with the suspected cable thieves,” Mangena further added.
Police Minister Bheki Cele visited the area shortly after the violent clashes.
Among other incidents preventing timeous repairs include the vandalised Bulk Metering Kiosk (BMK) by Joshco Kliptown flats, a vandalised mini substation by the Medical Centre; and multiple incidents of cable theft.
“Most of the impact of vandalism and cable theft could only be detected after we finished with the fire repairs and restored power,” explained Mangena.
Police have arrested 20 suspected in connection with ongoing cable theft.
“The spate of cable theft and vandalism has severely affected City Power and City of Johannesburg residents alike as the incidents are major contributing factors to most of the recent outages,” said Mashava.
“This was the only time we realized the magnitude of the impact to power supply.”
Repairs and restoration
City Power Management addressed the community and presented the solutions they are currently exploring to the ongoing problem.
“They include the fact that we are replacing the Bulk Metering Kiosk by the flats, but it needs to be relocated from the street into the Joshco flats premises to prevent further vandalism.”
“We spoke to Joshco and they have granted approval,” said Mangena.
We are replacing the mini substation by the Medical Center as well.
“The team is conducting site assessments to determine if we can’t get a safer location as it might be vandalised again.”
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City Power technical teams are on the ground testing and locating more cable faults affected by theft.
Those stolen cables have since been replaced, but in some cases, the rampant, unabating theft happened faster than the local power supplier could replace them.
“We are hoping to finish the work for the flats and surrounding community by early this evening (Tuesday, 26 April 2022), if all goes according to plan.”
Further assessments to determine the extent of cable theft and faults is underway, after which City Power will be able to give accurate times for power restorations.
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