Cable theft becoming a serious problem

Ole

30 November 2020

Rustenburg

Cable theft is known to be done for the cooper found in high voltage electrical cable which criminals’ pawn for money at scrap yards. Past few days we had a power outage in my home village Chaneng, this would take place either at night or early hours of the morning when people prepare to go to work. We naturally assumed its due to the thunderstorms experienced during the day or earlier night as it’s normal for power to trip as a result of that.

We however learned that there have been criminal activities taking place in our community for those days. Thief’s cut off cables in a household where they know that the family is absent and sometimes in a less busy area which has resulted in power outage and extra work for community calling to report only to learn there is no scheduled power cut. Luckily Eskom has been swift in the fixing of the cut down cables to reinstate power. But this needs joint forces between Eskom, community and police Forum to ensure there are no further issues especially now that we going into a dangerous month of the year. No pictures were taken as I live a bit far from the scene.