Three people including a City Power employee were arrested for cable theft and vandalism. The trio were arrested on Wednesday and Thursday in Alexandra and Booysens, respectively when City Power Infrastructure Task Team conducted a joint operation with Alexandra and Bramley police, Johannesburg Metropolitan Department officers (JMPD), and PRASA visited numerous scrap metal yards in Bramley to curb the ongoing scourge of cable theft in the area.
ARRESTING ONE OF THEIR OWN
City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena said two suspects aged between 30 and 50 were arrested at one of the scrap metal yards during the operation and were found in possession of about 100kg of copper cables belonging to the entity. Mangena added that the other two suspects managed to flee the scene. He said the following day, the entity Security Risk Management Team arrested their official working at the Reuven Service Delivery Centre for stealing various types of cables, including service cables. "An intelligence-driven operation revealed that some internal staff members were suspected of cable theft at the salvage yards across the business. The team followed the trail of one suspect after he was caught on CCTV cameras on July 1, loading cables from our evidence locker at the Reuven Complex. A case of cable theft was opened at the Booysens Police station and the suspect was arrested and has been remanded in custody after he appeared in court yesterday. We expect more of the officials to be arrested, and our teams are following the leads," Mangena said.
MORE THAN 170 CABLE THEFT CASES REPORTED
Since the new financial year, which began on July 1st, City Power has already recorded over 170 incidents of cable theft and vandalism and over 20 suspects arrested. City Power CEO, Tshifularo Mashava welcomed the arrests which he says, will serve as a deterrent to would-be cable thieves. "As an entity, we have never ruled out the involvement of some of our employees and contractors’ crimes relating to infrastructure crimes such as cable theft and vandalism," she said. "We are encouraged by the recent arrests of some of our own which attest to the efficiency of the security measures we have put in place." She called for scrap metal owners to work the root out those who commit these crimes. "We commend the work done by our partners in the security cluster, and the communities who have joined hands with us to curb the scourge of cable theft and vandalism. We call on the scrap metal yards owners to work with us and not against us in this fight against the sale of copper cables", she said. Mashava said cable theft and vandalism cause unnecessarily protracted disruptions to their operations, inconvenience customers, and put the lives of the residents at risk.
