This as cable theft in the early hours of Friday (27 August), left the Bloemfontein areas of Langenhoven Park, Bainsvlei and Spitskop in the dark for much of the day.

Centlec spokesperson, Lele Mamatu, says the utility’s officials worked hard to replace the damaged and stolen cables, eventually managing to restore power at 16:00 pm.

“These kinds of criminal activities impact not only our customers negatively, but also Centlec”.

Mamatu is unable to indicate by how much cable theft is setting the power utility back financially, at this stage.

The other areas that were affected by the aforementioned incident includes the small holding areas of Sterling, Vredenhof, Groenvlei, Arcadia, Avonsrust, Mooiwater, and Meadhurst. The South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates that cable theft costs the South Africa economy between R5 billion and R7 billion per year.

The theft of copper cables, overhead lines, transformers and conductors cost Eskom R2 billion annually. The national power utility says to safeguard cable theft they have installed alarms on overhead lines, placed unique markers on steel pylons that indicate that property belongs to Eskom, and replace copper conductors with aluminium among other measures.

OFM News