The regular power outages caused by cable theft, that took place  in Pretoria west, Gauteng, are costing several local businesses badly as they had to rely on generators while those that don’t have operated in the dark.

CABLE theft and infrastructure vandalism is one of the factors costing state-owned companies  like Eskom, Prasa and Transnet, as well as partially state-owned Telkom, about R7 billion a year in direct losses.

According to reports, the knock-on effect to the economy was estimated at R187 billion a year, the four companies that make up a working group, said in a joint statement. Pretoria west contributed to that as they faced lights out after the cable theft.

Tshwane’s senior manager for operations and maintenance in Gauteng, said their personnel had been working around the clock to restore electricity to over 24 000 consumers who had been left in the dark due to a power outage in the area.

He explained that the outage was caused by wire thefts that occurred in Pretoria West on September 21. While workers are working around the clock to restore power, the municipality stated it was impossible to estimate how long it will take to complete repairs due to the cable theft’s intricate damage to the substation.

“These criminal acts harm not only Eskom but also businesses and our customers, which has a negative influence on the economy,” the resident stated.  When President Cyril Ramaphosa was responding to the community of Soweto last Saturday about their Electricity issue, he mentioned what answers Eskom had for them.

He said Eskom stated their problem when it comes to fixing the electricity in the communities they first need to deal with illegal connections, cable theft and other theft relating to electricity. Eskom has urged South Africans to come forward with information about thieves and vandals.