Security personnel in Pretoria East substation held at gunpoint by vandals

Security personnel were held at gunpoint in the early hours of Monday at the Heatherly power substation in Pretoria East. It is alleged about 20 people stormed the substation during load-shedding.

City of Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said at least nine medium voltage cables were stolen and the substation was vandalised, resulting in a fire.

“After the outburst of flame at the substation, the emergency services department was activated to extinguish the fire,” Mashigo said.

A team of technicians was on site investigating the the damage and the necessary repairs.

“The city condemns vandalism of its infrastructure and urges members of the community to report suspicious activities to the Tshwane metro police 24-hour line on 012 358 7095/6 or cable theft hotline on 080 011 2722,” he said.

According to the city, the substation is offline and affected areas are: 

• Savanah Estate;
• Greecreek;
• The Blydes;
• Nellmapius Extension 3, 6, 7, 8 and 22; and
• Pienaarspoort.

Outlining the city's energy plan on Monday, mayor Cilliers Brink said load-shedding means heightened wear and tear on the distribution network.

“Depleting our repairs and maintenance budgets and criminals get proactive notice the power will be off and that's when they strike and strip our cables and our network. So any municipality that is not answering the question, ‘what are we going to do with load-shedding?’, is not doing its job. Every day rolling blackouts make us poorer, degrade our infrastructure, chip away at the funding model for local government.”

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