Body of Randburg Man Found After Being Shocked in Suspected Cable Theft Attempt, Potential Thieves Warned

• An unidentified man was electrocuted in Randburg in what appears to be an attempt to steal copper cables
• The man’s body was found by City Power technicians who responded to an outage in Bordeaux and surrounding areas
• It appears the man attempted to break into and vandalise a transformer substation but was electrocuted in the process

JOHANNESBURG - A Randburg man tragically died after being electrocuted in a suspected cable theft incident in the north of Joburg on Monday, 16 August.

According to TimeLIVE, Johannesburg City power technicians responded to an outage in Bordeaux and surrounding areas when they stumbled across the deceased's body. That is when they discovered that the blackout resulted from cable theft.

City Power spokesperson Isaacs Mangena said the man had broken into a transformer substation at the corner of Republic Road and Main Road and vandalised it to steal copper cables.

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The technicians isolated the substation while they waited for police to clear the scene and remove the body, SowetanLIVE reported.

Mangena said:

“Several customers in Bordeaux and the surrounding areas were left without power for most of the evening as the police were busy on site.”

It took the utility six hours to restore power to the affected area after the police handed the scene back to them.

South Africans react to the shocking incident

South Africans don't seem particularly moved by the news of the man's death, stating that it's one less criminal in the world.

Here are some comments:

@TrevorT36063137 commented:

"I for one am not sad that this infrastructure terrorist was electrocuted."

@EliasJoji said:

"Good, minus one thorn."

JHB City Power welcomes arrest of scrap metal worker found with stolen copper cables during raid in Alexandra

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In a related matter, Briefly News reported that a tip-off resulted in the arrest of a 65-year-old scrap metal manager on Friday, 12 August. Joburg City Power has applauded the arrest, stating that the man was found with suspected stolen copper cables after City Power's security positively identified the stolen property in Wynberg, Alexandra.

The power utility released a statement indicating that the scrapyard manager was one of eight suspects arrested for separate cable theft incidents that happened over the weekend.

Source: Briefly News