A third incident of copper cable theft in as many months has disrupted Telkom services to over 1 500 customers in the City Deep exchange area.
According to Telkom, an early-morning incursion by cable thieves at the weekend caused major disruptions to services in the Johannesburg suburbs of Tulisa Park, Electron, Steeldale and Elandspark.
"During the early hours of 4 May, cable thieves cut and stole three metres of 2400 pair main cable in a manhole on the corner of Heidelberg Road and the N17. The thieves used an angle grinder to cut through a lockable manhole lid."
Customers with the exchange codes 613 and 623 in the aforementioned suburbs - a total of 1 597 residential, business and corporate customers - are affected.
Telkom says it has started restoring affected services. Theo Hess, managing executive for network field services, says services will be gradually restored until Friday. "We apologise for the inconvenience caused by this outage and assure customers that we are doing everything possible to curb any further cable theft in the area."
Hess says the incident has been reported to the South African Police Service, as well as Telkom's internal security. "The police have launched an investigation."
Telkom has appealed to customers in the City Deep area to be on high alert. Suspicious activity can be reported to Telkom's 24-hour crime hotline number 0860 124 000.
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