R600,000 copper cable theft in Thabazimbi – a town already left in the dark
Platinum Bushvelder newspaper | Thabazimbi – If you phone someone in Thabazimbi, chances are the conversation will start the same way: “We don’t have electricity… There’s no water again.” Speak to a friend who lives there and you’re likely to hear a warning rather than an invitation.
It is against this already fragile backdrop that news has emerged of a R600,000 copper cable theft from an Eskom technical office in Marakele — a blow that feels less like an isolated crime and more like a cruel continuation of an ongoing crisis.
A town already stretched to breaking point
At the start of the year, Thabazimbi residents endured a major changeover to a new electricity system, a process that left many households and businesses without power. Shops struggled to trade, food spoiled, internet connections failed and families sat in darkness, waiting for answers that often did not come. For many, the disruption was not a temporary inconvenience — it compounded months of instability, uncertainty and frustration.
And now, on top of all of that, comes the revelation that copper cable worth more than half a million rand was stolen from infrastructure meant to serve the very same community.
A crime with real consequences
Copper theft is not a victimless crime. It translates directly into:
- Longer and more frequent power outages
- Delayed repairs
- Increased costs passed on to the public
- Further strain on an already overstretched electricity system
According to brigadier Hlulani Mashaba, a coordinated tactical operation conducted on Tuesday, 13 January 2026, involving Thabazimbi detectives, Visible Policing units and the Thabazimbi Rural Safety team, led to the arrest of two foreign male suspects in Thabazimbi and Regorogile. Police have linked the suspects to a business robbery at the Eskom Technical Office in Marakele, where copper cable with an estimated street value of R600,000 was stolen.
In a town where electricity and water interruptions are already part of daily life, this theft deepens the sense that residents are paying the price for failures beyond their control.
Uncomfortable questions that won’t go away
The timing of the theft raises troubling questions — questions many residents are already asking openly: How did the perpetrators know what to steal and when to steal it? Was the infrastructure left vulnerable during the system changeover? Are criminal networks exploiting moments when communities are already in the dark — literally and figuratively?
While police have arrested suspects linked to the theft, the broader issue remains: why does essential infrastructure seem so easy to target at the very moment it is most needed?
Photo: Copper cable recovered by police following a business robbery at an Eskom technical facility — a theft that struck a town already battling power and water shortages.