The City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ’s) power infrastructure is being pilfered on an industrial scale by armed criminal syndicates, which is threatening the city’s ability to provide reliable electricity to residents, CoJ Environment and Infrastructure Services MMC Michael Sun says.

He points out that 1 456 cases of vandalism and cable theft had been reported to City Power between July 2021 and the end of March 2022. These incidents have resulted in R24-million in damages and repairs owing to copper cable theft and damage to essential electricity infrastructure during the 2021/22 financial year.

There are confrontations between City Power security and would-be criminals occurring almost on a daily basis at substations and other infrastructure points around Johannesburg, Sun notes.

Hotspots include Lenasia, Alexandra, Northriding, Mulbarton, Ennerdale, Nasrec and Roodepoort. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that most of the city’s cable servitudes pass through open fields, making them vulnerable to theft.

“This is starting to show all the signs of criminal groups that are well resourced and organised. It is no longer just theft but robbery on a grand scale,” he says.

In the latest incident, two security guards were held at gunpoint at City Power’s Cydna substation, near Norwood, at 04:00 am on March 30 after being attacked by a gang armed with high-calibre assault rifles. After overpowering security guards, the gang made off with several hundred kilograms of underground copper cabling, using their unmarked 4x4 vehicles to rip this critical infrastructure from the ground.

“We will be beefing up security at hotspots and ensuring we have more personnel at all our substations. We are also installing [closed-circuit television] systems to act as an early warning system.

“However, if we do not have an urgent intervention from the South African Police Service (SAPS) on this issue, it will remain a critical challenge to providing reliable electricity to Johannesburg residents. It is only SAPS that can investigate these criminals and the National Prosecuting Authority that can prosecute them,” Sun points out.

Cable theft is responsible for most of the power outages in Johannesburg and causes major disruptions to the Johannesburg energy grid.

Sun says communities can play a key role in stamping out cable theft and robberies and he calls on all residents to play their part in reporting suspicious behaviour in or around the city’s electricity infrastructure to authorities.

“With the absence of these enforcement powers, we will have to rely on our own already stretched capacity and are thus calling on all community members to act with the City. If you see something suspicious, report it immediately,” he urges residents.

This approach has already borne some fruit when, directly after Sun hosted a public meeting to update on progress in upgrading the Eldorado park substation, two would-be cable thieves were caught red-handed by regional City Power manager Tiro Mokgosi, local ward councillor Juwairiya Kaldine and community members.

“When the team arrived on the scene, the cable thieves were still busy, but ran away when they saw the members approaching. The cable thieves could not outrun the members and were caught. I hope they will receive lengthy sentences for the crimes they are committing against their community,” says Sun.

The two suspects were handed over to the Eldorado Park police station and are expected to appear in court soon.