Cable theft grounded trains in the north of Pretoria on Thursday morning.

Thieves stole cables at the Winternest train station, Metrorail Gauteng spokesperson Tony Games said in a media statement. 

“There is no overhead power supply in both lines resulting in train movement temporarily halted until the technical teams replaces stolen cables. All Mabopane and De Wildt trains are not running this morning [Thursday morning],” Games said.

“The growing element of cable theft and vandalism of critical infrastructure components which results in dysfunctional signals and track circuits rendering system temporarily dysfunctional is regrettable.”