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Two men, including a Lesotho national, were arrested on 21 April 2017 in connection with the theft of electricity cable at Eskom’s Kardell substation in Stilfontein, North West.

The arrest came as a result of a tip-off received by Eskom’s Security Investigations Department, which was informed about a group of men who were seen stripping cable in an abandoned building not far from the Kardell substation.

Eskom security officers raided the building and arrested the two men while their accomplices made a hasty escape. Fourteen rolls of underground copper cable, weighing in at 265kg, were recovered from the scene, along with a hacksaw, knife and rubber gloves, which are thought to have been used by the suspects to obtain the cable.

A case of possession of suspected stolen material was opened at the Stilfontein police station.

“We are grateful for the continued support we are receiving from the public in the fight against cable theft and other infrastructure-related crimes,” said Tebogo Rakau, Divisional Executive for Security at Eskom.

“Damage to an electricity substation poses a serious danger to members of the public, particularly inquisitive children who might wander into the substation yard and be electrocuted by the exposed power lines that might still be live.

“Such vandalism and theft also disrupts power supply to all the surrounding homes, health facilities, businesses and other services such as traffic lights and streets lights that are supplied by the affected substation. This greatly inconveniences households and leads to loss of productivity for business, and ultimately affects their profitability and ability to retain or hire more staff,” Rakau added.

Eskom implores members of the public to report suspected cable theft and electricity theft by sending anonymous SMS tip-offs to Crime Line on 32211.

Issued by Eskom