Soweto Cable Thief Dies After Allegedly Trying to Vandalise and Steal Live Cable, Causing Power Outage

• An alleged cable thief has died after trying to cut a live cable in Soweto, Johannesburg
• Another thief was found deceased by City Power technicians in a transformer in Randburg
• City Power spokesperson Issac Magena warned about the deadly consequences of tampering with and vandalising power cables

JOHANNESBURG - A alleged cable thief has lost his life after trying to steal electricity cables in Soweto.

Cable theft dies after cutting live cable in Soweto

According to City Power Spokesperson Vincent Magena, the man was shocked to death by the power line the entity suspects was still live when the thief attempted to cut it.

The man's body was discovered because his attempted thievery and vandalism of the cables caused a power outage in Pimville, TimesLIVE reported.

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When technicians responded to the outage, they discovered the body was severely burnt.

City Power technicians find cable thief's body inside Randburg transformer

In Randburg, another suspected cable thief suffered a similar fate. City Power technicians responded to multiple power outages that started just after midnight on Tuesday, 25 July.

The technicians found the cable found the body of a man dead inside a transformer, IOL reported.

City Power's Issac Magena warns about deadly consequences of cable theft

Magena said City Power regretted that the two cable thieves lost their lives and warned that tampering with infrastructure had fatal consequences.

The spokesperson said that the City of Johannesburg had experienced over 114 incidents of cable theft and vandalism since July.

South Africans weigh in on the cable thieves' deaths

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Below are some comments:

@luyolom criticised:

"They’re relentless, still."

@EphraimSbudda claimed:

"Cables fighting back."

@NedTheNewt1 asked:

"Since you want residents to protect the infrastructure, should we start booby-trapping them? What exactly do you want us to do?"

Video of thieves stealing power cables in broad daylight in Ekurhuleni Angers Mzansi

Earlier, Briefly News reported that the lure of going viral is making people take out their phones and record situations even when they should be taking action.

A video circulating on Twitter has left South Africans fuming after community members stood by taking pictures while thieves stole power cables.

Reacting to the video shared by popular media personality Yusuf Abramjee, people said Ekurhuleni residents should not complain about power shortages because they did nothing when thieves stole cables.

Source: Briefly News