The public wage strike has disrupted City Power's plan to bust a syndicate responsible for illegally selling its electricity. 

The entity had planned to pounce on the syndicate members operating in Rabie Ridge on Tuesday, but they could not proceed due to a lack of law enforcement agencies.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said they had planned that SAPS would join them to conduct the operation, but Public Order Policing members were then deployed to eye public servants who downed tools, to demand better salaries.

Mangena said the syndicate illegally sold cables or connected those who bought their own cables into their network.

Later, that power is distributed to informal settlements at a fee.

"That power is connected to houses neighbouring informal settlements. Landlords charge between R200 and R500 per month. We have also found a scrapyard distributing power to neighbouring shacks at a fee.

"The sophisticated ones are those selling City Power prepaid vouchers. This matter has been handed to the Hawks. We have been tracking the syndicate for some time. Information obtained was handed to our Group Forensic Investigation unit working with the Hawks on the matter," Mangena said.

"Their place of residence is known. It is just a matter of catching them in the act or with the loot. We were hoping that today we were able to do that."

Mangena said they could not proceed due to previous attacks on City Power employees.

"We will beef up security when we go there. We could not go there on Tuesday because of the area's volatility. Public Order Police that we had arranged to join us had to be deployed elsewhere in the province. We didn't have sufficient manpower. We wanted to go there.

"Kanana is among areas that we could not go to. We will go there soon. We realised that some of our operation plans weren't successful. In the past, we received hostility in Kanana. Our colleagues were stoned and even shot at.... We will reconvene this operation."

In Rabie Ridge and neighbouring areas, City Power is owed more than R408-million by local businesses, the government, and large power users.

Mangena vowed that their operation to disconnect illegally connected power from business, residential and defaulting customers was continuing.