Residents of Musina’s Extension 4 area were greeted by a dark cloud of confusion and anger on Monday, after thieves had vandalized an electricity transformer and stolen copper cables worth R800 000.

The Musina municipal spokesperson, Mr Wilson Dzebu, told Mirror that the municipality was working tirelessly towards addressing the situation, following the sad development. “Right now our workers are working around the clock in an effort to try and restore the power supply to the affected community. While the workers were still busy, they also received another report that 500m of aluminium cable was stolen at Nancefield on Sunday night (October 12). Our technical team went there to investigate and they were greeted by a vandalized transformer lying on the ground. Next to a transformer was home made equipment, which we suspect was used to pull down the transformer from its stand on the electric poles. The equipment included thin poles and ropes, which were strewn all over the area,” he said.

Dzebu said cases of cable theft had of late become a problem around Musina, a development that continues to affect electricity supply in most parts of the town.

However, surprisingly, it still remains a mystery how the suspects managed to pull down the transformer without causing noise that could easily have attracted the attention of residents.

“The transformer is situated in the residential area and the local community only realized that there was no electricity the following morning. You will note that such incidents impact negatively on our service delivery obligations. Our people are suffering because of some ruthless thugs who do not have respect for state property,” he said.

A report was then made to the police. Musina SAPS spokesperson Captain Mihloti Ringane confirmed the incident.