Corrupt insiders allegedly steal technical equipment from electricity substations and sell it back to City Power

Helen Zille, the DA’s mayoral candidate for the City of Johannesburg, said circuit breakers are being stripped from substations and sold back to City Power.

Zille shared this information in a video where she discussed the problems related to electricity substations in Johannesburg.

In a previous video, she said that substations are hijacked and turned into homes while circuit breakers are stripped and sold for scrap.

She then provided new information, which is more alarming. “Specialised high voltage circuit breakers are stolen from City Power substations across Johannesburg,” she said.

“These are not ordinary components. They require expert knowledge, authorised access and technical skill to remove safely from dangerous high voltage environments.”

“That tells us something important. This is not opportunistic theft. This is insider crime carried out by people who work for the city or contractors working alongside them.”

She said the most shocking part was that, at a recent closed meeting, City Power management acknowledged these suspicions.

“But it gets worse. There are credible suspicions that these stolen breakers are being resold back to City Power,” she said.

That means that the stolen equipment re-enters the system through procurement channels as replacement equipment.

“If confirmed, this is not just theft. This is organised corruption targeting the very infrastructure that keeps your lights on,” she said.

Zille added that across the city, City Power substations are being physically hijacked and converted into people’s shelters.

“Critical infrastructure meant to power neighbourhoods is being stripped and occupied. This is what happens when a government abandons its responsibility,” she said.

“Johannesburg residents are paying the price through outages, damaged infrastructure, and skyrocketing repair costs.”

Serious electricity infrastructure problems in Johannesburg

Apart from the widespread substation challenges Zille referred to, Johannesburg faces a severe energy crisis.

The crisis is driven by a combination of grid decay, financial disputes, criminal activity, and high-demand pressures.

Finances are at the centre of the crisis. The City of Johannesburg and City Power owe Eskom over R5 billion in ballooning electricity debt.

Eskom has repeatedly issued public notices threatening to reduce, interrupt, or cut bulk power supply to major parts of the metro due to non-payment.

The power utility has even started to switch off high-voltage streetlights across 100 roads in major suburbs.

Maintenance is another challenge. The city’s substations, transformers, and underground cabling are decades old and chronically underfunded.

As cold weather sets in, increased residential demand across Johannesburg triggers widespread overloads.

City Power regularly enforces scheduled maintenance interruptions to replace components and prevent a total localised grid collapse.

Copper cable theft and the stripping of substations for metal are also rampant, leaving suburbs without power for days while specialised teams attempt repairs.