City power employee, contractors among six nabbed for theft, vandalism

A City Power employee faces disciplinary action while two of its contractors were fired after they were allegedly caught committing crimes against the entity.

The three were among six arrested on Thursday and Friday across the city for cable and equipment theft and vandalism.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the first incident happened in Hillbrow on Thursday night. 

“City Power's 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 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 on video on Friday reportedly removing 20 metres of copper cable and replacing it with an ABC cable in Witpoortjie. He too was arrested.

Mangena said the Roodepoort service delivery centre also reported an incident on Thursday night.

“One of their transformers inside a chamber in Matholesville was stolen but no arrests have been made. It is not clear if any of the arrested suspects are linked to this theft of a transformer, and the police are investigating.

“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 CEO Tshifularo Mashava, said: “City Power’s business operations are continuously negatively affected by essential infrastructure crimes, with the entity losing about R4bn across the city from cable and equipment theft and vandalism, every year. These crimes further contribute to delayed service delivery to residents.

“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.

“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.”

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