City power
City Power says latest cable theft in Roodepoort cost over R1m
Over the past four days, technicians have been working to try and fully restore electricity to the area after criminals caused major infrastructure damage.
The utility said the move from four-hour cuts to two hours was to address the consequences that come with longer supply interruption.
On Monday, the city evicted a mother and her four children from such a chamber in Randburg, which she turned into her home.
City Power is targeting illegal connections in businesses and residential areas as part of operation ‘Kleena Joburg’.
Illegal power connections appear to be a serious problem in Roodepoort and on Monday City Power disconnected homes and business as part of operation Kleena Joburg.
Over the weekend, claims started circulating that the utility would not be able to handle the volume of call-outs during the storm because contracts had ended on 31 October with service providers.
Residents in some parts of Soweto, Benoni, Brakpan and Vosloorus in Gauteng and Intabazwe in Harrismith are among the affected communities.
Officials were conducting what they called “surprise cut-offs" for defaulters and illegala connections at houses in Dainfern, near Fourways, on Wednesday afternoon.
City Power carried out an operation in Alexandra on Wednesday where illegal connections at the River Park flats, Greenville, and several homes along London Road were disconnected.
The utility said it was taking action to address overloading on the network and to recover lost revenue caused by illegal connections.
It took City Power almost a week to replace and repair infrastructure at the Vasco da Gama switching substation in Alexandra after vandals targeted it for a third time on Sunday, resulting in an explosion.
The Vasco da Gama switching station exploded on Sunday when criminals tried to steal cables and vandalised infrastructure for a third time this year.
With temperatures expected to drop below zero degrees over the next few days, the utility has urged customers to use electricity sparingly.
The utility has warned that the power grid remains under pressure and load shedding could be back with very little notice.
According to preliminary investigations, attempted vandalism and theft were to blame for the explosion.
Residents from several areas in the south of Johannesburg were left without electricity. City Power has urged communities not to start fires near electricity infrastructure.
The power supplier said it received a request from Eskom to implement rolling blackouts due to high demand.
The broad use of copper has increased the value of the metal, enticing criminals and scrapyards to illegally obtain it.
Large parts of the township were plunged into darkness when criminals attempted to steal copper cables before the station tripped and exploded earlier this week, leaving residents without power for at least four days.