City Power intensifies scrap metal raids
City Power has announced it will intensifying the raids of scrap metal at locations across the City of Johannesburg over the coming days, to clamp down on copper cable theft and vandalism.
Since the start of July, the power utility recorded 14 incidents of copper cable theft and vandalism across Johannesburg.
In the 2022/23 financial year, City Power recorded 2 347 incidents of cable theft and vandalism and 278 arrests were made.
This week’s successful raid resulted in the arrest of two South African scrap metal managers between the ages of 34 and 40, 34kg of shiny copper cables were found in the suspects' scrap metal yard.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says copper cables are a valuable commodity, which is easy to steal and can be sold for high amounts on the black market or as scrap metals.
Copper cables are used in a variety of industries.
“These raids will become our security strategy in reducing essential infrastructure crimes on our electricity network and will further focus on crime information gathering to ensure both prevention and successful arrests and prosecutions of suspects.
“The issue of cable theft and vandalism remains one of the biggest problems hampering our efforts to provide uninterrupted power supply services and resulting in significant revenue loss.
“In addition, community uptake to protect the network infrastructure will drastically reduce the opportunity for copper cable theft and vandalism, and ultimately contribute to the goal of clamping down these crimes,” says Mangena.
Residents are urged to report any cable theft and vandalism or any suspicious activity around electrical infrastructure on 0800 116 166, or send a WhatsApp to 083 579 4497 or call the South African Police Services (SAPS) 10111.
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