By: Sello Theletsane
City Power chief executive Tshifularo Mashava has welcomed the arrest of one of the contractors for sabotage and tampering with essential electricity infrastructure.
The suspect was found inside City Power switching substation in the Roodepoort area with working equipment. City Power said in a statement that it was not clear how the suspect gained entry “but his actions nearly killed some of City Power operators and technicians who were working on the network down stream from the same switching station”.
“While City Power operators were working on the repairs in the Roodeport area, they isolated the Switching Substation for safety purposes. By sheer luck they tested the cables and other infrastructure again before starting their work, only to find that the cables were still live.”
“They went back to the transmission station to check how the cable they isolated earlier is suddenly live. They found the suspect inside the chamber and the community had already captured him on suspicion that he was there to vandalize 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,” Ms Mashava said.
The community had initially let the suspect off the hook, and City Power General Manager: Security Services Sergeant Thela set into motion plan to have him apprehended. Within 24hours, the suspect was tracked and informed to submit himself to Head Office, Reuven for questioning. On arrival, the suspect was immediately arrested with the assistance of JMPD Tactical Team and placed into lawful custody.
The contractor has been taken to Roodepoort SAPS and is expected to appear in court tomorrow where he is facing charges relating to tampering with essential infrastructure, vandalism, acts of sabotage.
The suspect is also facing a possible attempted murder charge for putting the lives of the technicians in danger. 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 Roodepoort area the hardest hit. 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 with those arrested recently with more expected to be arrested soon. The police are following up certain leads and we are confident arrests will be made,” Mashava added.
In the last month, there has been atleast 100 incidents (a minimum of 3 incidents per day) around Roodepoort where mini substations were vandalised, cables and fuses stolen, which led to the recent widespread outages in and around various areas in Roodepoort.
Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre has replaced at least 7 mini substations in the last two weeks in Roodepoort areas such as Wilropark, 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 direct imprisonment of a suspect who was arrested in March 2023 near Joburg Fruit Market in the 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.”
The CEO has commended the City Power Security for relentlessly supporting the SAPS investigations and the NPA during the prosecution process. Without such joint efforts and support, the suspect would not have received such a hefty sentence which befits the crime.
There are many more, and not just contractors…how did he get **IN** IS THE ????