Joburg highlights industrial-scale electricity infrastructure theft

The City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ’s) power infrastructure is being pilfered on an industrial scale by armed criminal syndicates, which is threatening the city’s ability to provide reliable electricity to residents, CoJ Environment and Infrastructure Services MMC Michael Sun says. He points out that 1 456 cases of vandalism and cable theft had been reported to City Power between July 2021 and the end of March 2022. These incidents have resulted in R24-million in damages and repairs owing to copper cable theft and damage to essential electricity infrastructure during the 2021/22 financial year.