The town of Dimbaza in South Africa's Eastern Cape province is facing a severe electrical infrastructure crisis due to rampant theft of cables and transformers. Residents are now taking matters into their own hands, guarding equipment at night, while businesses are struggling to operate without power. The situation has become so dire that Buffalo City Metro employees have been arrested for allegedly being involved in the theft, with municipal machinery reportedly used to dig up cables.
According to Eastern Cape police spokesperson Col Siphokazi Mawisa, 13 arrests have been made in connection with cable theft and infrastructure damage in the area over the past year. Police have also recovered cables in 27 incidents, with 11 linked to reported cases and 16 confiscated as suspected stolen property. Mawisa stated that no syndicate was positively identified during the reported period, but an incident involved Buffalo City Metro officials being arrested while allegedly digging up electricity cables using a municipal TLB.
The financial impact of the theft is significant, with Buffalo City Metro estimating that replacing a stolen transformer and associated electricity infrastructure could cost more than R300,000. In Nomgwadla, a rural settlement adjacent to Dimbaza, resident Lulama Gaika reported that the community's electricity transformer had been stolen three times since 2024. A fourth attempt was foiled after residents were alerted by barking dogs and quickly responded alongside Dimbaza police.
The repeated blackouts are having a devastating impact on rural households, with Gaika stating that children are forced to bathe in cold water before school and food spoils in unpowered fridges. The situation also creates an opportunity for stock thieves to steal cattle and goats, and residents are now having to guard transformers with their lives. Gaika suspects that those responsible have technical expertise, given their efficiency and lack of noise or mistakes.
The electricity crisis is also taking a toll on businesses, with a local panelbeater, Sisa, abandoning his workshop after encountering at least 15 balaclava-clad men stealing a transformer. The continuous theft and lack of power forced him to close down. At the Dimbaza Industrial Zone, Buffalo City Metro teams were replacing a stolen transformer supplying local factories, a school hostel, and a funeral parlour.
Buffalo City Metro spokesperson Luzuko Buku stated that electricity theft and vandalism are rife in Dimbaza, with the theft of a transformer being particularly brazen and shocking. He confirmed that the metro had previously recovered a stolen transformer being used to supply an illegal connection to an informal settlement and that repairing a transformer and associated electricity infrastructure cost more than R300,000.
Police have intensified patrols and are using crime intelligence to try to identify those responsible, but prosecutions are being hampered by difficulties establishing ownership of abandoned factories. Buffalo City Metro has participated in operations to arrest those involved, including a municipal employee, and has placed Dimbaza on a high-risk response list to improve monitoring and response to similar incidents.
Key points
- Buffalo City Metro estimates that replacing a stolen transformer and associated electricity infrastructure could cost more than R300,000.
- 13 arrests have been made in connection with cable theft and infrastructure damage in the area over the past year.
- Residents have formed a community-watch WhatsApp group to alert one another to suspicious activity and conduct patrols at night.
