The killing of two security officers tasked with protecting an electrical substation from cable thieves has highlighted the danger that lurks behind the crime often referred to as economic sabotage.
The officers, who were part of a reaction team that was stationed at Verref substation in Vereeniging, south of Johannesburg, were gunned down on Friday, two days after four of their colleagues were brutally assaulted with pipes and landed in hospital.
The guards, employed by Wenzile Phaphama Security, have been hired to protect six substations and hundreds of kilometres worth of copper cable networks which criss-cross Emfuleni. The municipality has been hard hit by cable theft in recent months, with at least one incident of theft reported a week, according to Emfuleni’s lead administrator, Gilberto Martins.
Martins said with each cable stolen being about 500m in length, this led to disruption of electricity supply to communities and businesses.
“We have security guards stationed at all of our assets because there are groups of AK47-wielding criminals who steal our assets, including copper cables but this is the first time that an incident got so extreme,” said Martins.
“The affect of this sort of criminal activity costs the municipality millions because of interruptions to basic service delivery. It affects sewage plants, businesses and households.”
On Wednesday last week, four security guards manning the substation were attacked, stripped naked, assaulted and forced to dig up copper cables when a large group of men ambushed them.
Two days later, an armed reaction team from the same company was brought to prevent further attacks and theft, but this ended in the murders of the two officers — Moqhadi Mokoena and Elvis Motaung.
Thomas Netshivhodza, a supervisor at the security company, told Sowetan their officers faced constant danger as thieves were heavily armed and uncompromising in their bid to get their hands on cables.
Emfuleni is not the only area faced with the scourge of cable theft. Two weeks ago the vandalism of Eskom’s substation in Jabavu plunged large parts of Soweto into darkness for weeks as criminals raided the infrastructure looking for cables and transformers.
In another incident that sparked violent protests, copper cables feeding Nancefield Hostel were stolen three weeks ago, also leading to outages in the area for two weeks. Hostel dwellers blamed residents from a neighbouring informal settlement for the theft.
Sifiso Mokoena, a security guard who survived Friday’s attack in Vereeniging, spoke of how he escaped with his life from the attack.
“We were asked to cover the site because we were a reaction team. I was in with my two colleagues because I got a call. While I was on the call two men in blankets saw me and opened fire on me. I ran behind the guard house and I, too, returned fire. I saw Motaung running out of the vehicle as he wanted to take cover but I saw him falling down during the shoot-out,” he said.
Mokoena said only he and Motaung were armed, while their colleague did not have a firearm on him.
“I scaled the fence about the substation and jumped inside, then I heard a lot of men about me shouting ‘rea mo bona. Mothibeng’ (we can see him, stop him). I then decided to charge at them and opened fire until I ran through a veld to seek help,” he said.
Mokoena said he returned later with his supervisor and found the lifeless bodies of his colleagues.
Capt Fikile Funda confirmed that they were investigating two cases of murder and a case of cable theft amounting to R30,000. He said no arrests had been made and was appealing to the public to come forth with information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said cable theft and vandalism have devastating effects on City Power’s ability to deliver services.
“This is also greatly influenced by mushrooming informal settlements in the City, and illegally connecting on the network resulting in overloading, explosions and frequent outages.
“He said they were conducting security operations at scrapyards, illegal connections cut-offs on identified hotspots where the problem is endemic.
“We have also started replacing copper cables with aluminium cables. The City loses R2bn annually in cable theft and illegal connections.”
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