City Power contractor arrested after admitting to tampering with Florida infrastructure

A disaster was averted when community members interrupted a vandal tampering with electrical infrastructure.

City Power technicians were working on the network near the Joubert mini substation and were ready to repair sections of a switching station. The technicians had just isolated a transmission station further up the line and upon double-checking the current, found the lines remained live. The technicians returned to the transmission station where they found community members inside the chamber with the suspected culprit.

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The man was not immediately arrested, even after he confessed that he had switched on the breakers. Additionally, the contractor could not produce any job card requiring him to be there nor could he explain his actions. However, with intervention from City Power’s general manager for security services, Sergeant Thela, the man was in custody within 24 hours of the incident. The City Power contractor was tracked and requested to report to the entity’s Reuven head office where he was subsequently arrested on May 31.

“We have been experiencing a blatant attack on our infrastructure across the city, with the Roodepoort area the hardest hit. Some of the vandalism on the infrastructure cannot be explained as often nothing is taken. Most are bordering on sabotage and we have increased surveillance in collaboration with police and other security apparatus to ensure we root out the criminals,” stated City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava.

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The contractor was taken to Roodepoort police station and is expected to appear in court where he is expected to face charges relating to tampering with essential infrastructure, vandalism and acts of sabotage.

“We have never ruled out the involvement of contractors and some of our staff in some of these actions. We are starting to see this with those arrested recently with more expected to be arrested soon. The police are following up certain leads and we are confident arrests will be made,” Mashava added.

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Residents across Roodepoort are well acquainted with prolonged outages and City Power claims that in the last month at least 100 incidents, averaging at least three a day, of vandalised mini substations, cable theft and stolen fuses have occurred within Roodepoort. In just the last two weeks, Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre has replaced at least seven mini substations in Wilro Park, Ruimsig and Fleurhof, among others.

Isaac Mangena, City Power spokesperson, reiterated the entity’s commitment to its customers. Citing the 15-year direct imprisonment sentence recently given to a man found in possession of a quarter of a million rands worth of copper cables, he said, “The CEO has commended City Power security for relentlessly supporting police investigations and the NPA during the prosecution process. Without such joint efforts and support, the suspect would not have received such a hefty sentence which befits the crime.”