City Power pleads with communities to protect infrastructure

City Power has pleaded with residents across various communities to remain vigilant and assist in protecting the infrastructure which it claimed has come “under siege”.

Several areas west of Johannesburg have been plunged into darkness following reported cable theft and malicious damage to electricity infrastructure.

Cable theft

City Power said cable theft is becoming a chronic problem.

“The cables at South Road Bridge and Progress Road were stolen again last night, for the 3rd time in less than a week.”

Affected areas

“These left customers in Reefhaven, Lindhaven, Groblerpark, Parts of Witpoortjie and surrounds without electricity,” it said.

City Power added another cable was also stolen in Florida the same night after it was replaced.

“This one affected parts of Florida View, Rand Leases Extension 5 (Rugby Club), parts of Fleurhof, Wilgeheuwel, Radiokop and Honeydew, and are also without power supply due to stolen cable.”

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Restoration

City Power said its teams have managed to restore some areas.

“The teams have managed to back feed some of the affected customers and are still at various sites working on identifying possibilities of back feeding more areas.”

It said material is still being sourced to replace the stolen cables and repair vandalised equipment.

“Due to the magnitude of the work that needs to be carried out in all these incidents as well as shortage of replacement material, some of the areas affected by these outages may take a few days before we can complete repairs and restore.”

Outages

“Our infrastructure is target by these criminals and load shedding is also creating a fertile ground for them. We plead with communities to remain vigilant and assist in protecting the infrastructure as it is clearly under siege,” City Power said.

However, customers are urged not take the law into their own hands. City Power said customers should report acts of cable theft and vandalism to police or City Power Risk Control.

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