Two City Power transformers were damaged at the corner of Hurley Street and First Avenue in Melville, causing an outage to surrounding areas.
A Melville Security Initiative (MSI) panic activation alerted Beagle Watch, who attended the scene. Security officers found four suspects inside the substation. Three fled, and one was apprehended by the officers.
Brixton Police Station’s spokesperson, Jeanette Backhoff, confirmed that one suspect was arrested.
MSI’s Danny Nunes said, “The officer managed to detain one suspect who was in possession of a bag of tools which were used to strip the transformers. They had also significantly damaged the transformer which caused an outage to several streets in Melville, Auckland Park, and Richmond.”
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said, “Repairs and installation of new transformers cost R900 000.”
Damage to infrastructure
Mangena said there was a significant increase in the number of theft and vandalism incidents across the city. “Criminals now work around the load-shedding schedule to avoid electrocution or detection.”
City Power has recorded 1 619 incidents of cable theft and vandalism with 200 arrests since the start of the current financial year. During the previous year, 2 175 incidents of cable theft and vandalism took place.
There are two streams of vandalism, said Mangena.
• The first, ‘borders on sabotage’ where criminals deliberately break into a mini-substation and cut cables, brake fuses, remove doors and take nothing.
• The second, is vandalism where criminals ‘break in, steal the breakers, fuses, cables, doors, and copper bits inside, and sell them off as scrap metal’.
“Over the past year, in which Eskom imposed more than 200 days of load-shedding, City Power has replaced in excess of 390 mini-substations, at a cost of R200 million. This has left a huge dent in our budget – we have already spent 80% of our budget for the whole financial year which started in July 2022.”
Mangena said, City Power is unable to keep up with the high demand for repairs and maintenance of infrastructure, caused by vandalism as well as damage suffered via load-shedding.
Report any suspicious activity around City Power infrastructure to 0800 116 166 or send a WhatsApp to 083 579 4497.
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