City Power retrieves 600kg cables after theft attempt amid M1 fire

JOHANNESBURG - City Power has retrieved 600 kilograms of copper cables from suspected thieves who attempted to steal the cable after a fire on the M1.

The underground tunnels on the double-decker bridge in the inner city were engulfed by flames on Tuesday night.

This has left parts of Parktown, Braamfontein and Parktown without power supply.

READ: Power outage in parts of Joburg due to M1 fire likely to last until next week, says City Power

The utility said once the fire started, there was an attempt to steal the cables, resulting in a gunfight between City Power's security personnel and the criminals thus preventing the theft.

The utility said the perpetrators attempted to grab the cable from the tunnels, without realising there was security officers patrolling the area.

Spokesperson Isaac Mangena said they have written to Police Commissioner Fanie Masemola to help combat this criminality.

"So, this is something that we are expecting law enforcement, the people whose competency is to protect the infrastructure and the people to come on board and assist us."

Meanwhile, the utility said it’s looking into bringing in structural engineers to examine whether the integrity of the M1 double-decker highway was not compromised by the fire.

ROLE OF POLICE

City Power has called on police to play an active role in addressing theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure around Johannesburg.

City Power said when the vandalism incident occurred, police were nowhere to be seen.

"This was a crime scene yesterday [Wednesday] but there were no police there on top of this case where EMS, JMPD and us were. This is about criminality and City Power's competency is to ensure that we keep the lights on," said Mangena.