Mbombela conquers challenge of replacing 30m of stolen cable
The power outage was caused by the theft of about 30m of power cable from under the railway bridge behind City Centre.
Cable thieves left part of Mbombela without electricity for more than 10 hours on August 23.
The power outage forced the City of Mbombela’s (CoM) officials to work relentlessly to restore electricity to affected areas.
The CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, said about 30m of power cable had been stolen from under the railway bridge behind City Centre.
They had to source the cable before the replacement process could commence. He said it was an arduous task, but their focus was to restore power to their customers.
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Ngala said they don’t know who stole the cable, and the matter is being handled by the police. “I would like to urge members of the public to assist in safeguarding the infrastructure by reporting anyone who is tampering with it to the police. The infrastructure is there for the people to use. They must also make it their responsibility to keep it safe, and as the City, we will also play our part in safeguarding it,” he said.
Ngala added that cable theft is costing the municipality millions of rand that could be used for other service delivery purposes.
