Three Tshwane metro employees from the Prince’s Park electricity depot who were arrested on Friday due to cable theft were each released on a R1000 bail on Monday.
The three appeared at the Pretoria Magistrate’s court on charges of theft, after it was discovered that they stole a cable which caused a fire at the Asea substation in Pretoria West.
Tshwane metro police spokesperson, Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said that on 23 August the three employees were at the Asea substation pretending to be doing some work there.
“When the employees left, there was a fire at the power station. The fire caused damages worth 3 million rand to Tshwane metro property and a factory next to the power station, which burned due to the stolen cable.”
Mahamba mentioned that metro vehicles were also burnt in the process.
“During investigations we discovered that there was no job card given to the employees to work at the substation. They stole a cable worth R60 000 that caused the fire and damages around the substation,” Mahamba explained.
He said when investigating the matter they linked the employees to the crime and they were arrested at their workplace.
Mahamba told Rekord on Wednesday that the Tshwane metro is also busy with its own internal disciplinary action against the employees.
“The employees are back at work until it will can be determined if they should be suspended or not.”
South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) chairperson, Nagesh Chetty said that due to the burning at the substation, residents were without power for a couple of days. He said he also had damages to his home worth thousands of rands. The power outage affected motorists as well as streetlights that were not working.
“Again this is an inside job which remains a problem in the Tshwane Metro. The metro should root out corrupt officials before we become a banana republic. We are tired of the crime.”
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