The National Police Commissioner Riah Phiyega has made an appeal to the public for support in the fight against crime at a Crime stoppers international conference held in Cape Town that will run untill Wednesday.
She said South Africans should report the criminals who live in our midst by sending tip-offs to the South African Police Services or to Crime Line, a partner in the Eskom-led campaign aimed at fighting electricity theft.
Electricity theft was recognised as a serious global problem at the conference and reported as the third most stolen commodity in the world, after credit card information and vehicles.
A criminal offence, electricity theft costs Eskom more than R4.1 billion each year, while the country as a whole loses over R7.5 billion due to this crime.
Maboe Mapahaka, Senior Manager for Energy Trading and Sales Forecasting at Eskom said the parastatal made great progress on tackling cable theft, but more needed to be done.
"To date, more than 10 500 tip-offs have been received resulting in over 130 arrests for crimes relating to electricity theft and more than 60 convictions. This is great progress, but more needs to be done. We will continue to work with SAPS and the NPA to strengthen the investigation and criminal prosecution of electricity thieves.” he said
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
