A City Power employee is among three suspects arrested this week for cable theft and vandalism. .
On Wednesday, the City Power infrastructure task team conducted a joint operation with Alexandra and Bramley police, the Johannesburg metropolitan police department and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa at numerous scrap metal yards in Bramley to curb the scourge of cable theft.
Two suspects aged between 30 and 50 were arrested at one of the scrap metal yards and were found in possession of about 100kg of copper cables belonging to City Power. The other two suspects fled the scene.
On Thursday, the Johannesburg electricity utility’s security risk management team arrested an official working at the Reuven service delivery centre for stealing various types of cables, including service cables.
“An intelligence-driven operation which was conducted by the City Power security risk management team revealed that some internal staff members were suspected of cable theft at the salvage yards across the business,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.
He said the team followed the trail of a suspect caught on CCTV cameras on July 1 loading cables from an 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 today [Friday],” he said.
Mangena said City Power expected more officials to be arrested.
Mangena said since the start of the new financial year, which began on July 1, the utility had already recorded more than 170 incidents of cable theft and vandalism and more than 20 suspects had been arrested.
“We welcome these arrests which will serve as a deterrent to would-be cable thieves. We have never ruled out the involvement of some of our employees and contractors in crimes relating to infrastructure such as cable theft and vandalism,” said City Power CEO Tshifularo Mashava.
Mashava commended the work done by their partners in the security cluster and communities who have joined hands to curb the scourge of cable theft and vandalism.
“We call on scrap metal yard owners to work with us and not against us in this fight against the sale of copper cables”, she said.
TimesLIVE
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