Cable thieves cost Joburg R236m as one in five power outages linked to crime - IOL

City Power spent R236 million replacing electricity infrastructure damaged by cable theft and vandalism in the 2025/26 financial year, with the utility blaming criminal activity for about 20% of power outages across its Johannesburg network.

City Power has blamed cable theft and vandalism for approximately 20% of power outages across its Johannesburg network, revealing that it spent R236 million in the 2025 and 2026 financial year replacing infrastructure damaged by criminal activity.

The City of Johannesburg’s electricity entity revealed the figures during its ninth Regional Electricity Imbizo, held in South Hills on Wednesday.

The engagement brought together residents from Wards 65, 57, 56 and 124, as well as surrounding communities, to discuss electricity supply challenges and other service-related concerns.

The meeting comes as residents across Johannesburg continue to experience recurring power interruptions.

Speaking at the imbizo, City Power acting chief executive Charles Tlouane acknowledged residents’ growing frustration over repeated electricity interruptions, particularly in areas supplied by ageing substations such as Wemmer and Moffat.

Tlouane said both substations had been operating for several decades, with the Wemmer Substation more than 70 years old.

While ageing infrastructure presents operational challenges, he said City Power was implementing planned maintenance interventions to extend the lifespan of its assets and improve supply reliability.

“Some of our critical infrastructure, including Wemmer Substation, is more than 70 years old. We are therefore taking a strategic approach to maintenance, where we do not simply repair faults and return the same ageing equipment to service.

“Wherever possible, we are replacing key components and progressively phasing out obsolete equipment as part of our maintenance interventions. This is essential to improving the reliability and performance of our network,” Tlouane said.

Tlouane identified cable theft and vandalism as among the most serious threats to the sustainability of electricity supply.

He said City Power spent R236 million replacing infrastructure damaged by cable theft and vandalism, which account for approximately 20% of power outages across its network.

City Power is working with the South African Police Service (SAPS) and other law enforcement agencies to combat infrastructure-related crime, he said.

Tlouane said the entity recently wrote to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), requesting assistance with preventing infrastructure crime, particularly in the Johannesburg inner-city tunnels, which contain approximately 14 kilometres of electricity cables.

However, he said the challenge extends across City Power’s distribution network, which comprises more than 22,000 load centres that require protection.

The entity has secured more than 3,000 load centres but acknowledges that it does not have sufficient security capacity to protect every installation.

City Power is also responsible for almost 400,000 streetlights across its supply and non-supply areas, many of which are deliberately damaged or vandalised.

He said during the 2024 and 2025 financial year, theft and vandalism affecting public lighting cost the entity R161.8 million.

Protecting approximately 50,000 kilometres of low-voltage electricity cables presents another challenge, particularly because copper remains an attractive target for criminal syndicates.

“Cable theft and vandalism are not only criminal acts; they directly undermine our ability to provide reliable electricity to communities. It is simply not possible for City Power to physically guard every asset.

“We need residents, Community Policing Forums and law enforcement agencies to work with us to protect this infrastructure,” Tlouane said.

He said the entity was committed to resolving customer billing and metering challenges, including complaints about inaccurate bills.

Tlouane said restoring confidence in the entity’s billing processes and ensuring that customers were accurately billed for the electricity they consumed remained a priority.

“Since City Power took over the electricity billing function in July 2025, the number of outstanding billing queries has been reduced from approximately 8,000 to fewer than 2,000,” he said.

He said City Power will also intensify efforts to remove illegal electricity connections and prioritise enforcement at hijacked buildings.

The entity said unlawful connections and unaccounted-for electricity consumption placed additional pressure on the distribution network and its finances.

Tlouane said the interventions form part of City Power’s broader normalisation programme, which aims to restore safe and legal electricity connections, address network overloading and improve payment compliance.

Under the programme, affected communities are required to achieve at least 80% electricity vending compliance before restored infrastructure is energised.