Eskom has welcomed the arrest of three suspects who stole cable drums worth over R1 million from one of the power utility’s offices in the North West province.
The power utility said in a statement on Thursday that the police had arrested the suspects in Pretoria in connection with the 7 October theft of 16 drums of cable belonging to Eskom.
“The arrests follow an armed robbery incident that occurred at the Wolmaransstad Customer Network Centre (CNC) in Klerksdorp,” Eskom said.
“During the incident, unknown armed suspects entered the CNC (at 12.56am) and loaded 16 drums of Eskom cable, valued at R1 051 530.00, on to trucks and fled the scene.”
The three suspects appeared in the Wolmaransstad Magistrate Court yesterday. The two trucks involved in the crime have been confiscated from the owner and will be presented as evidence.
“Eskom commends the tireless and exceptional investigative work by the SAPS head office detective team, which led to the arrests of the suspects. We hope the suspects face the full might of the law and believe that the three suspects may be linked to several other similar armed robbery incidents committed recently at other Eskom CNCs,” the power utility said.
“We are committed to safeguarding the security and integrity of our critical infrastructure.”
Eskom said ongoing collaboration between its internal security investigations team and law enforcement agencies, co-ordinated by the National Energy Crisis Committee’s Safety and Security Priority Committee was continuing to yield “significant positive results” in combating crime and corruption.
Eskom urged the public to report any information related to unlawful activities, including armed robberies, illegal electricity sales, fraud, theft of coal, fuel oil, diesel, and critical and essential infrastructure crimes.
Reports can be made anonymously through the Eskom Crime Line at 0800 11 27 22 or via WhatsApp at 081 333 3323.
