Two suspects have been arrested in connection with vandalism of critical infrastructure at the Reyger Switching Station on Monday, August 17.

The station, located on Dromedaris Street, was heavily vandalised, with six switchgears removed from their panels.

According to City Power’s spokesperson Isaac Mangena, preliminary investigations indicate that access was gained through a broken section of the perimeter fence and the door was broken into. Oil was also found spilt inside the station.

“The two suspects were arrested following a co-ordinated undercover operation. A criminal case relating to tampering with essential infrastructure is being opened at the Roodepoort Police Station,” he said.

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Mangena added these arrests come after a concerning pattern of attacks on electricity infrastructure in the Roodepoort area, which directly contributed to outages in recent days and weeks affecting Lindhaven, Grobler Park, Wilgeheuwel and Honeydew.

“City Power is investigating whether the incidents are isolated acts of vandalism and theft or they could point to a broader and coordinated effort to target strategic points on the electricity network.

“The investigation will also assess whether the suspects will assess whether the suspects may be linked to other infrastructure-related incidents.”

He added that the scale of the vandalism is reflected in the Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre, which is managing more than 491 open outage calls, including 425 reported within the past 24 hours.

“Not all these outages are attributable to criminal activity, but the recent attacks have added to the operational pressure on City Power and continue to weaken the network.”

Mangena said this isn’t the first attack on infrastructure, as the Reefhaven Switching Station was recently targeted, resulting in outages affecting Lindhaven and Grobler Park, while a separate incident at the Ruimsig Substation affected Wilgeheuwel and Honeydew.

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“Both incidents involved vandalism and theft. City Power is concerned that the repeated targeting of strategic installations could amount to activity bordering on sabotage if evidence establishes that the attacks are deliberately intended to compromise an essential service.”

City Power Acting CEO Charles Tlouane said that while the arrests were an important breakthrough, he called on the law enforcement agencies to dig deeper to determine the involvement of organised criminals and saboteurs involved in targeting the electricity across the city.

“The arrest of these suspects gives us an important opportunity to establish who is behind the attacks and whether there are links between incidents affecting critical infrastructure in Roodepoort and elsewhere in the city where our infrastructure has been under siege.

“We will not pre-empt the investigation by labelling the suspects as members of a syndicate, but the repeated and targeted nature of these attacks leaves much to be desired and requires an intelligence-led investigation that looks at the wider network of those involved. We would be naive to rule out the possible involvement of our own staff and contractors,” said Tlouane.

Suspicious activity, suspected tampering, vandalism, cable theft and illegal connections can be reported to the City Power Security Risk Management Control Room on 011 490 7900, 011 490 7911 or via WhatsApp on 083 579 4497. Criminal activity should also be reported to the police.