City Power employee among three nabbed for cable theft and vandalism

Three people including a City Power employee have been arrested for cable theft and vandalism.

The trio were handcuffed in Alexandra and Booysens on Wednesday and Thursday.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the utility’s Infrastructure Task Team was conducting a joint operation with police, JMPS and Prasa at various scrap metal yards in Bramley when the suspects were arrested.

“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”.

The other two suspects managed to flee the scene.

Employee nabbed

Mangena said the City Power official working at the Reuven Service Delivery Centre (SDC) was arrested the following day for stealing various types of cables, including service cables. 

“An intelligence-driven operation which was conducted by the City Power Security Risk Management Team revealed that some internal staff members were suspected of cable theft at the salvage yards across the business.

The team followed the trail of one suspect after he was caught on CCTV cameras on 1 July 2023, loading cables from our evidence locker at the Reuven Complex.

A case of cable theft was opened at the Booysens Police station and the suspect was arrested and remanded in custody after he appeared in court today,” Mangena said.

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More arrests

Mangena added more arrests are expected.

City Power CEO Ms Tshifularo Mashava has welcomed the arrests

“As an entity, we have never ruled out the involvement of some of our employees and contractors crimes relating to infrastructure crimes such as cable theft and vandalism.

“We are encouraged by the recent arrests of some of our own which attests to the efficiency of the security measures we have put in place.”

City Power said it already recorded over 170 incidents of cable theft and vandalism and over 20 suspects have so far been arrested this year.

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