City Power reported an eventful weekend, marked by a hostage situation, an armed robbery at a substation and the arrest of seven suspects in a separate operation.
Three men posing as routine patrol officers from the same security company approached the entrance, in the early hours of Sunday morning.
When security officers on duty opened the door, they were confronted with a firearm and ordered to sit down.
The suspects, wearing balaclavas, forced entry, restrained the officers with cable ties and marched them through the feeder boardroom into the tunnel area.
One suspect remained behind to guard them while the others proceeded to strip copper bars from the feeder board.
The criminals appeared to be receiving remote instructions, reporting their progress and being guided on how to remove the infrastructure.
At about 05:15 am, the officers heard a vehicle enter the premises and leave shortly thereafter.
Once the suspects fled, colleagues from another security company arrived and freed the officers.
Although they were not physically injured, they were left visibly traumatised.
Sixteen copper bars were cut and skinned during the attack, causing significant damage and posing severe safety risks.
Less than 24 hours earlier, at around 18:10 on Saturday evening, an armed robbery occurred at the Robertville Substation.
Two suspects armed with rifles breached the perimeter by removing sections of the barbed wire fence. They confronted security officers on duty and robbed them of cellphones, a security radio and cash before fleeing the scene.
While no infrastructure was damaged in that incident, the direct targeting of personnel marked a worrying escalation in criminal behaviour.
Three days before, City Power said its Service Delivery Centre Security Team in Alexandra, received information about suspicious trenching activities on Lennox Street in Waverley.
Upon investigation, individuals on site were asked to produce permits authorising the excavation.
A permit presented was found to be fraudulent and issued for work in Gresswold, not Waverley.
The men were arrested.
Charles Tlouane, Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), at City Power, said the three incidents collectively show both the seriousness of infrastructure crime and the entity’s determination to respond with firmness and clarity.
“Criminal syndicates are becoming increasingly aggressive and organised, targeting essential infrastructure and the people tasked with protecting it. Interfering with high voltage equipment places lives at risk and can result in explosions, fires and widespread outages that affect entire communities. City Power will not allow its employees to be terrorised or its network to be sabotaged.”
Criminal cases relating to the Observatory hostage incident and the Robertville armed robbery have been opened with the South African Police Service (SAPS), and investigations are continuing.