Major cable theft still keeps parts of industrial area in the dark

Date: 04 July 2018 By: Andries van Zyl

Several businesses in Louis Trichardt’s industrial area are still without power, following a case of cable theft that took place over the weekend.

According to Makhado municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi, a power outage to Makhado Park was reported around 22:00 on Saturday. Faults on the line supplying the industrial area persisted until the electrician was withdrawn from the scene at around 03:00 on Sunday. Repair work on the line continued until about 11:00 on Sunday. “The line was patrolled, and we found that serious damage was caused by thieves who cut down four high voltage poles and then stole approximately 1800 metres of overhead conductor cable,” said Bobodi.

Although the electricity supply was restored to parts of the industrial area, some parts were still without power by Wednesday morning. “The damages are still being fixed. It is a lengthy process as new poles and new conductors need to replaced and installed,” said Bobodi. He gave no indication as to how long the repairs would take.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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