Cable theft behind Isipingo power outage says City
eThekwini
Municipality believes that cable theft was behind a mass power outage in
Isipingo, south of Durban.
This is after technicians discovered the body of a suspected copper thief at a substation yesterday.
The City says the man had been electrocuted. Teams, responding to the emergency, found that copper cables had been pulled out at the distribution station which feeds electricity to ward 90 and other areas nearby.
The technicians isolated the substation and have been working on a solution. DA councillor, Andre Beetge says power should be restored by this afternoon.
"Erecting the remote towers can take anywhere between three to five days. Some of the areas might already be on, especially those around the hospital area. I've been in communication with the staff, they are indeed busy with it but it's not a small task, taking into consideration that it’s all the cables coming into the DSS and then out."
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He says vandalism is costing the municipality millions and has subjected ratepayers to unnecessary blackouts.
"The maintenance is falling behind as far as three years because maintenance staff are just going out there to fix and rectify where there has been vandalism to the system, so the money that should be spent on fixing the streetlights, getting new infrastructure, upgrading infrastructure, is going into the system just to replace the stolen infrastructure."
