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Electricity substation in Lotus Park, Isipingo.
The eThekwini Municipality’s Department of Electricity says it is concerned with the high level of electricity theft and vandalism.
This comes after three people died in two separate incidents in the metro and two other people died when an electrical substation blew up in Isipingo.
In Clairwood, one person died due to tampering with a cable that was exposed because of work on a water pipeline.
Acting head of energy management in the municipality Philani Shange says such vandalism costs the city a lot of money.
“Every year, we have seen a lot of our sub-stations being vandalised. Just last year alone, in the southern region we had five sub-stations that were vandalized, in the central region we had four and in the northern region we had four.
In total, each sub-station cost about R5 million to reinstate and in the process, we lose a much-needed revenue and our customers are inconvenienced and they lose time in terms of productivity when there is no electricity in the area.”
EThekwini Municipality calls on communities to play an active role in safeguarding electrical infrastructure and report those on a quest to sabotage such critical municipal equipment.
The plea comes after two men, suspected of theft and vandalism of electrical infrastructure,… pic.twitter.com/Ub4DeFlQ4N
— eThekwini Municipality (@eThekwiniM) July 15, 2025
