Electricity in Fleurhof was restored late yesterday afternoon, 22 April, following an outage caused by an attempted cable theft at approximately 10pm on Wednesday, 21 April. This outage has prompted yet another warning from City Power as to the dangers of vandalising electricity infrastructure.
Initial reports only detailed that the outage had been caused by an attempted cable theft at the Pennyville Substation, but an updated statement released a few hours later confirmed that while attempting to steal the cables, the suspect was accidentally electrocuted. His body was found by City Power technicians who had gone to investigate the tripped distributor on Wednesday night.
“He was lying near the 11kV pylon with the cable feeding the overhead line cut. His tools were also near him,” stated City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena. The electricity entity’s CEO, Mongezi Ntsokolo, expressed his frustration by saying that cable theft is a serious problem for City Power, not only because it inconveniences their customers, but also because they are left to replace the cable and deal with the costs relating to that, which amounts to millions of rand in lost revenue.
“We apologise to the affected residents. The CEO and Management of City Power have extended their condolences to the family of the deceased,” concluded Isaac.
Cable theft, power interruptions, vandalism and any other electricity-related queries can be reported at https://citypower.mobi or by sending a Tweet to @CityPowerJhb. Telephonic reports can be directed to 011 490 7911 or 011 490 7900.
