Two City Power security officers survived an ambush in the Eikenhof area, Johannesburg, Sunday night in which one of them was shot and wounded.
City Power Spokesperson Isaac Mangena, on Monday, said: “The two security officers were doing their regular patrols in the bushes, near Eikenhof substation, when they were ambushed by an unknown number of suspected cable thieves who came from nowhere and started shooting.”
Mangena added: “A shootout ensued, with the two security officers clearly outgunned, and one of the security officers was shot and taken to Milpark Hospital”.
Mangena said the Eikenhof was a cable theft hotspot.
“This is partly due to the vast open bushy spaces where our cables supplying Naturena, Kiblerpark, among others, run,” Mangena asserted.
He said the shooting was proof that cable thieves had become “brazen and dangerous”.
“We are no longer dealing with common criminals but well-resourced individuals.”
Mangena said City Power has called on the SA Police Service to do more to assist “our security response” to cable theft and vandalism.
He said police should mount regular patrols and raids in areas identified as cable theft hotspots.
A case of attempted murder, tampering, and attempted theft of essential infrastructure has been opened with the police.
Mangena revealed that 18 cases of vandalism and theft of cables, fuses, and breakers, were reported between Friday and Sunday.
“One suspect was arrested in Fairlands for being in possession of fuses stolen from a transformer substation in the area,” said the City Power spokesperson.
