By: ANG Reporter
Johannesburg Metro Police on Thursday arrested six suspects in Hillbrow, among them a City Power employee and a contractor, who were caught red handed stealing a transformer inside a building. The employee was also using a City Power–branded vehicle.
A source told Africa News Global that while patrolling around Joburg CBD, Metro police received a tip off about people who were stealing a transformer inside a building. “Police then proceeded to the scene and on arrival, they found five suspects wearing worksites attire. “Among them were City Power employee and a sub contractor. Police introduced themselves and when they asked the men what they were doing in the building, the men couldn’t give any satisfactory answers. They also failed to produce any job cards or wayleave.”
“They were immediately placed under the arrest for attempted theft. Police also confiscated a blockchain, two trucks, one belonging to City Power and a Nissan NP200 bakkie. The vehicles were impounded and suspects detained at Hillbrow Police Station. They are due to appear in court soon.” City Power spokesperson Ice Mangena confirmed that one of the suspects arrested was the entity’s employee. “City Power welcomes the arrest of six suspects in different areas across the City in the past 24hrs for crimes relating to essential infrastructure crimes in the form of cable and equipment theft and vandalism. Two of those suspects are City Power contractors and one of them is a City Power employee,“ Mangena said.
He said the first incident occurred last night (Thursday) in Hillbrow, where City Power Security Risk Management Team received an anonymous tip-off that five suspects were attempting to steal a transformer. “The suspects were caught in the act and taken in by law-enforcement agencies including the JMPD for processing at the Hillbrow Police Station. In this incident, one suspect was found to be a City Power contractor and one is a City Power employee. Two trucks and a bakkie bearing City Power logos have been taken in by the police”
“Another City Power contractor was caught earlier today on video, removing 20 metres of copper cable and replacing it with ABC cable along Hamberg Road, Witpoortjie. He has been taken to the Honeydew Police Station for processing. The Roodepoort Service Delivery Centre, also reported that last night, one of their transformer inside a chamber around Matholesville was stolen but no arrests have been made. It is not clear if any of the arrested suspects is linked to this theft of a transformer, and the police are investigating,” said Mangena.
“We are calling on anyone who has seen or knows a person who has a transformer or any electrical equipment to anonymously inform the police so that the criminals can be brought to book.” City Power Chief Executive Tshifularo Mashava said: “City Power’s business operations are continuously negatively affected by essential infrastructure crimes, with the entity losing about R4-billion across the City from cable and equipment theft and vandalism, every year. These crimes further contribute to delayed service delivery to the residents in the City of Johannesburg. We have a mounting problem of cable theft and vandalism and we have never ruled out that the exacerbation of these crimes could be due to the involvement of some of our contractors or internal employees.”
Mashava added that since Monday 27 March, “we have recorded 26 incidents of cable theft and vandalism and made eight arrests”. “Internal disciplinary action will follow against the City Power employee, and the City Power contractors will be fired and have their contracts with the entity terminated. It is extremely disappointing for us as these are the people that are entrusted with keeping the lights on but instead they are the ones contributing to the lights being off.”
“We are happy with the security measures we have put in place, including the collaborations we have with the police and communities, which have in recent days led to the arrests against criminals targeting electricity infrastructure. These arrests should serve as a warning to others, including those working for City Power, that we will be coming for them, ” Mashava added.
I believe that most of the power outrages are done by city power employees and contractors, JMPD did a great job where I can say nothing to SAPS, we the community relies more and trust more JMPD then SAPS when it comes to assistance in the community, look at what had happen in Boksburg when thiefs took out 10 meter cable probably longer infront of the SAPS while they turn a blind eye of what is happening infront of them. My personal opinion is to get SIU in to investigate city power and the contractors for these stolen cables that courses power outages, do random lie detector test on all of them, I promise you they will find the thiefs in the circle.