Johannesburg - City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava has applauded the arrest of one of the contractors for sabotage and interfering with critical energy infrastructure.
According to Mashava, the suspect was found inside a City Power switching substation in the Roodepoort area with operational equipment.
It is unclear how he gained entry, but his actions nearly killed some City Power operators and technicians who were working on the network downstream from the switching station.
“While City Power crews were working on repairs in the Roodepoort area, they isolated the switching substation for safety reasons, and by chance they tested the cables and other infrastructure again before beginning their work, only to discover that the cables were still live.
“They went back to the transmission station to check how the cable they isolated earlier suddenly became live, and they found the suspect inside the chamber, and the community had already captured him on suspicion that he was there to vandalise and steal the equipment.
“He confessed that he switched on the breakers and could not produce any job card requiring him to be there, nor could he explain his actions,” she said.
Mashava said the community had initially let the suspect off the hook, and City Power general manager of security services Sergeant Thela set in motion a plan to have him apprehended.
“Within 24 hours, the suspect was tracked and informed to submit himself to head office, Reuven, for questioning, and on arrival, the suspect was immediately arrested with the assistance of the JMPD tactical team and placed into lawful custody.”
The contractor was taken to Roodepoort SAPS and is expected to appear in court, where he is facing charges relating to tampering with essential infrastructure, vandalism and acts of sabotage.
“The suspect is also facing a possible attempted murder charge for putting the lives of the technicians in danger, and it is not clear if he was working with other people.
“We have been experiencing a blatant attack on our infrastructure across the city, with the Roodepoort area the hardest hit, and some of the vandalism on the infrastructure cannot be explained as often nothing is taken.
“Most are really bordering on sabotage, and we have increased surveillance in collaboration with the SAPS and other security apparatus to ensure we root out the criminals.
“We have never ruled out the involvement of contractors and some of our staff in some of these actions, and we are starting to see it with those arrested recently, with more expected to be arrested soon. The police are following up on certain leads, and we are confident arrests will be made.”
She added that in the last month, there had been at least 100 incidents (a minimum of three incidents per day) around Roodepoort where mini-substations were vandalised and cables and fuses stolen, which led to the recent widespread outages in and around various areas in Roodepoort.
“The Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre has replaced at least seven mini-substations in the last two weeks in Roodepoort areas such as Wilro Park, Allen’s Nek, Groblerpark, Ruimsig and Fleurhof, among others.
“In the meantime, City Power commends the work of the security cluster following the successful prosecution and sentencing to 15 years of direct imprisonment of a suspect who was arrested in March 2023 near the Joburg Fruit Market in City Deep. He was found with a quarter of a million rands worth of copper cables.
“We believe this sentence will serve as a deterrent to other would-be cable thieves across the city,” said Mashava.
The Star