Joburg closing in on cable thieves
Arrests imminent after city’s investigators pounced on premises and seized stolen goods worth R80m
THE NET is closing in on service providers and City Power staff implicated in the recovery of stolen goods worth R80 million in a law enforcement raid this week.
Tons of underground and overhead copper cables stripped from traffic lights, streetlights and poles, transformers, electronic warning boards, fittings, fuses, circuit breakers and other goods were found stored in 12 warehouses across the city on Tuesday night.
Some of the warehouses belonged to City Power contractors.
The shocking discovery was revealed to the media yesterday by MMC for infrastructure Nico de Jager, City Power boss Lerato Setshedi and the head of Joburg’s investigations unit, Shadrack Sibiya.
Setshedi said the excess materials supplied to service providers for projects should be returned to the power utility, but this was not happening. Some of the cables were found as far afield as Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
The recovered material has already been returned to City Power’s head office in Booysens. The officials said a football pitch would probably not be big enough to contain the recovered goods.
Sibiya ation was a culmination of two months of intensive investigations.
“We received information from a whistle-blower, who informed us about transformers and generators as well as copper cables that were stashed at various premises. So we approached the courts to obtain search warrants.
“On Tuesday night, we launched an operation and managed to retrieve assets that belonged to the city which we believe had been stolen,” Sibiya said.
No one was arrested during the operation.
“We did not arrest anyone, not because we don’t know who to arrest or we’re unable to, but because we were acting on a tip-off. We still have to conclude our investigations before deciding who to arrest,” he added.
De Jager said City Power and the City of Joburg needed to tighten internal controls and hold contractors accountable.
“It is evident that in some cases, some of these contractors were sabotaging our infrastructure. This means our controls are not up to standard at the depots, when it comes to booking in and out faulty and new equipment.
“But we are also not following up with the contractors in managing what the contractors did. We are not verifying what they say they did and what has been done,” he said.
On one of the properties material belonging to City Power was discovered, but the contractor was not providing services to the utility.
When the team quizzed the son of the owner of the property on the premises, he said the marked drums, which belong to City Power, were destined for other municipalities, such as Ekurhuleni and Emalahleni.
It was unclear recovered material was still usable, and tests would be done to determine this.
“All of this now needs to be tested. We need to determine if it can still be used. We don’t know for how long it has been lying there. And if there’s water in it, it’s no use to us. We will cut it up and sell it as scrap, but at least it will be us selling it,” De Jager said.
The city said the contracts of identified service providers were being terminated.
“When they steal our infrastructure, these contractors sabotage our economy and our city. They deprive the residents of quality service. But we are committed to fighting fraud, corruption and maladministration.”