Joburg substation blows up in tampering resident’s face

A resident from Crosby near Mayfair has been hospitalized after he allegedly tampered with a mini substation in an attempt to illegally restore his electricity and it exploded.

The area has been without electricity since early on Wednesday, after the mini substation tripped due to a suspected overload.

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A call was logged with City Power, and the team was finishing at one site before they could attend to the tripped mini substation.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says the man was warned against trying to restore power by himself.

“In a trail of WhatsApp Group messages from impatient residents, the victim was warned by the Councillor and other residents against trying to operate on the City Power network. It would seem the victim went ahead and tried to operate when the substation blew up.”

Isaac Mangena

Mangena says City Power operates in a highly regulated environment which prohibits unauthorised individuals from working on the electricity network.

“No resident is allowed to operate on the City Power network as this is not only illegal but dangerous, as is the case with the incident in Crosby.”  

“We have a serious problem of vandalism of our infrastructure to an extent where residents illegally operate our network, often with the help of unqualified electricians, and connect themselves to the network or make illegal connections into the informal settlements,” Mangena said.

Mangena says Crosby is among several areas with exacerbated illegal electricity activities.

“The area of Crosby is one of those with this problem where people in formalised houses illegally connect themselves, bypass meters, and illegal connections to Slovo informal settlement.  This mini substation which blew up is brand new after we installed it a few weeks ago, and even our MMC Michael Sun visited the team working to connect it.”

Mangena says City Power has reported a case of vandalism and malicious damage to property against the victim.

“After the legal processes have been completed, City Power will switch on Power to the affected community this afternoon.  

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