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Two arrested for vandalising switching station in Roodepoort

The suspects were found with tools they utilised in the criminal activities and were taken to Roodepoort police station.

After an incident that happened on Tuesday, October 11, two suspects were arrested in the wee hours after they were found vandalising the Mechanical Workshop Switching Station in Roodepoort.

According to the power utility, the station has been a target of more than five incidents in the past weeks resulting to damage in excess of R3m.

The suspects were found with tools they utilised in the criminal activities and were taken to Roodepoort police station.

In another incident, a suspect was arrested by members of the police for tampering with essential infrastructure.

All the suspects will be charged with damage to, theft of or tampering with essential infrastructure crimes under the Criminal Matters Amendment Act.

An amount of 75 arrests have been made from July 1 to September 30.

“As City Power we are continuing with strategies to strengthen our efforts in safeguarding the City’s electrical infrastructure. We are embarking on improving technology that will be rolled out soon, we will continue creating greater cooperation and partnerships with communities, Community Policing Forums and Business Forums,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.

According to Mangena, there is a greater collaboration with the Essential Infrastructure Task Teams established under the police and it’s bearing fruits.

City Power is calling on various communities to continue protecting the network supplying their areas as part of City Power’s collaborative efforts.

“City Power has been successful in clamping out criminals operating in its network, our infrastructure has been attacked by criminal elements in the past few days. This happened barely a day after Sergeant Thela, General Manager for Security at City Power was on various media houses providing awareness on copper cable theft,” added Mangena.

City Power’s Security made another breakthrough by arresting repeat copper cable thieves and vandals.

One suspect was arrested in the vicinity of Lotus substation after a 100 metre trench was dug and copper cable stolen over several days.

While in the open veld, the suspect would monitor security personnel to make their patrol beats.

In the early hours while the security officers are moving away for shift change over, the suspect will dig and steal the cables.

A strategy was devised and was executed in the early hours of the of October 10, where the suspect was detected and arrested. The suspect was processed at Ennerdale Police station.

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