City Power welcomes arrest of suspected cable thieves
City Power says it is encouraged by the recent arrests and recoveries, including the arrests of some of their own employees in the ongoing cable theft and vandalism of the entity's infrastructure.
The City of Johannesburg’s power entity City Power has welcomed the arrest of three suspects that included the entity’s employee for allegations of cable theft and vandalism.
The three suspects were arrested on August 2 and 3 last week in Alexandra and Booysens on the respective dates following a joint operation of the City Power infrastructure task team alongside Alexandra and Bramley SAPS, Metro police and Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) around numerous scrap metal yards in Bramley to curb the ongoing scourge of cable theft in the area.
Two suspects aged between 30 and 50 were arrested at one of the scrap metal yards during the operation and were found in possession of about 100kg of copper cables belonging to City Power while two other suspects managed to flee the scene.
A City Power security risk management team arrested an official working at the power entity’s Reuven service delivery centre (SDC) for stealing various types of cables, including service cables.
An intelligence-driven operation, which was conducted by the team revealed that some internal staff members were suspected of cable theft at the salvage yards across the business, said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
Mangena said the team followed the trail of one suspect after he was caught on CCTV cameras on July 1 allegedly loading cables from the entity’s evidence locker at the Reuven complex.
A case of cable theft was opened at the Booysens Police Station, the suspect was arrested and has been remanded in custody after appearing in court soon after his arrest.
“We expect more officials to be arrested following the arrest of this one suspect as our teams are following up on various leads,” Mangena said. He added that since the new financial year, which began on July 1, City Power has already recorded more than 170 incidents of cable theft and vandalism with more than 20 suspects arrested.
“We welcome these arrests which will serve as a deterrent to would-be cable thieves. As an entity, we have never ruled out the involvement of some of our employees and contractors in crimes relating to infrastructure theft and vandalism,” said City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava.
“We are encouraged by the recent arrests of some of our own, which attest to the efficiency of the security measures we have put in place.”
She commended the work done by their partners in the security cluster, and the communities who have joined hands with City Power to curb the scourge of cable theft and vandalism. “We call on the scrap metal yards owners to work with us and not against us in this fight against the sale of copper cables.”
Details: Report cable theft, vandalism, or any suspicious activities on infrastructure to 0800 116 166 or WhatsApp to 083 579 4497.
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