Residents of Soweto, Eldorado Park and surrounding areas in the south of Johannesburg say they are fed up with increasing incidents of cable theft.
On Monday, Pimville resident Kgomotso Diale was shot and killed and five others wounded when a group of men fired at residents who marched to Chicken farm in Kliptown to complain about cable theft.
Police Minister Bheki Cele has arrived in Soweto where he will be briefed on the shooting incident.
In the video below, Police Spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili provides details of the shooting in Pimville:
Impact on residents
Pimville community leader Bandile Kalipa says cable theft is negatively impacting residents.
Kalipa says many pensioners are running out of money as they are forced to buy gas to heat their homes and cook.
He says some of the elderly use oxygen machines, and the continuous power interruptions are putting their lives in jeopardy.
He has appealed to the police minister to intervene and deploy officers to guard substations.
Eldorado Park residents say they are suffering the same fate and have accused local scrapyards of encouraging cable theft by buying it from criminals.
Cable theft a danger
City Power has raised the alarm about how dangerous cable thieves have become. This follows the murder of two security personnel, who were patrolling cable theft hotspots in Johannesburg earlier this month.
Two armed security officers contracted to City Power were patrolling when they were ambushed by unknown gunmen in Newtown. The security guards were shot and killed.
In a spearate incident, armed criminals held up City Power contracted security at gunpoint at the Cydna substation near Melrose, and stole 12 copper cables from the high voltage yard.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena says it’s become a complex syndicate and these criminals are heavily armed and dangerous.
Experts say there’s a need for law enforcement agencies to collaborate, especially in countries where stolen cables are sourced from South Africa.
More details in the report below:
-Additional reporting by Pearl Magubane
