On Friday, March 31, a City Power contractor was arrested after video footage showed him replacing 20m of copper cables with Aerial Bunched Cable (ABC) cable on Hamberg Road, Witpoortjie.
Also read: Residents fume over constant cable theft attempts at South Road bridge
According to Isaac Mangena, spokesperson for Johannesburg City Power (CP), the contractor has been taken to the Honeydew Police Station for processing, and his contract will be terminated.
“City Power’s business operations are continuously negatively affected by essential infrastructure crimes, with the entity losing about R4-billion across the City from cable and equipment theft and vandalism, every year. These crimes further contribute to delayed service delivery to the residents in the City of Johannesburg. We have a mounting problem of cable theft and vandalism and we have never ruled out that the exacerbation of these crimes could be due to the involvement of some of our contractors or internal employees,” stated Mangena.
Also read: City Power active in the fight against cable theft
CP urges any resident who has witnessed or knows any person with a transformer or electrical equipment to anonymously inform the police, further they are asking residents and councillors to question those claiming to be City Power technicians or contractors by asking for IDs and job cards, explaining their work in that area.
“Tampering with essential infrastructure is a serious crime and carries a maximum of 15 years of jail time without an option of a fine. City Power is committed to safeguarding and protecting the electricity network infrastructure against various crime risks and we will continue to work with law enforcement agencies to curb these acts of crime,” Mangena concluded.
