Johannesburg - The arrest of a suspect who was badly burnt while attempting to steal a cable near the repair site of an electricity fault in Alexandra has been welcomed by City Power.
The police were his saviour, arriving on the scene and quickly rescuing the suspect just as the community was about to beat him up for adding to their woes of going days without power due to cable theft.
According to spokesperson Isaac Mangena, the suspect is currently fighting for his life in police custody.
He said City Power teams and contractors were busy on site trenching to repair a cable fault near the Alexandra substation when, bizarrely, a few metres away, the suspect tried to cut and steal copper cable.
"What the suspect was not aware of is that some of the cables were live and supplied electricity to customers at the time of his actions. And the cable blew up and burned the suspect on most of the upper body, including the face.
"The area near River Park and its surroundings is one of the hotspots for cable theft and vandalism and is part of the reason most of the community east of the Jukskei River has gone for almost a week without electricity.
"The unknown suspect has been charged with tampering with and attempted theft of essential infrastructure and other related crimes.
"Meanwhile, City Power recorded 25 incidents of cable theft and vandalism this weekend alone, with eight of those happening in the inner city," said Mangena.
The Star