Two Joburg City Power security officers were threatened with death, tied up and left to watch as a gang of six criminals vandalised the Alexandra substation and stole multiple cables on the site.
The theft of the cables, which included protection cables, has led to multiple distributors tripping, causing widespread outages in the Alexandra township.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said a gang of six criminals armed with dangerous weapons targeted the substation and stole the guards’ cellphones.
He explained that the guards had been on duty at the substation when they came under attack.
“Multiple distributors tripped as a result, causing a widespread outage in the Alexandra area. The officers, who were responding to a suspicious activity, were outnumbered and unfortunately held hostage by the gang of unidentified criminals,” Mangena said.
“The six men forcibly gained entry into the substation premises on Tuesday night, December 19,” he said.
“The suspects were armed with dangerous weapons and were also in possession of bolt cutters. They held the pair and tied them up, while they were busy stealing protection cables and vandalising our infrastructure in the process.”
He said they were told to look away or face being killed, while the suspects fled with stolen cables and cellphones.
The matter has been reported to the South African Police Service (SAPS) in Alexandra for further investigation.
Mangena said the issue of theft at substations continued to be a challenge for the power utility, particularly in townships.
“This theft exposes the substation, supplying power to most customers in the township, to a very serious risk, as the stolen cables serve, not only to supply power, but to protect the substation from any dangers, including fire,” Mangena said.
He said they appealed to the community for assistance in providing any information that could lead to the arrest of the six suspects.
“We also appeal to the community patrollers to prioritise municipal essential infrastructure by patrolling around these installations and help curb theft and vandalism,” he said.
“City Power can never stress the importance of keeping essential infrastructure secured at all times. It’s for that reason that we have placed security officers at different substations to ensure that we have added layer of protection in order for us to provide as much of uninterrupted services as possible, to our customers,” Mangena said.
“The attacks on our staff and technicians makes it difficult for us to render sufficient services to the residents of Alexandra, with our technicians already not responding to night outage calls in the township due to the attacks.”
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