15 Dec 2024

The minister of Minerals and Energy, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo has expressed concern about some rampant incidents on electric cable theft in Maun.

Maun and surrounding areas have been experiencing prolonged unplanned power interruption due to cable theft and vandalism that occurred last week Tuesday. 

A public announcement from Botswana Power Corporation indicated that the incident has adversely affected power supply to the Maun 11 kilo/volts Satellite Sub-Station which subsequently distributed electricity to Maun  and the surrounding areas. 

However, Ms Kenewendo expressed concern during an interview following a tour to appreciate areas where the theft occured. She noted that she had been receiving several complaints from the business community and the public at large that they went for some days without power and pointed out that was due to underground cable theft near Riley’s Old Bridge. 

“Incidents of cable theft are disturbing in this area and I am warning perpetrators to refrainfrom such behaviour. Power cables can be dangerous because they carry strong electrical currents and can cause electric shocks, fires and other injuries,” she warned, appealing to members of the public to report suspicious incidents to relevant authorities.

She stated that rampant stealing of cables was encouraged by the availability of the cable market and urged the public to play an active role in solving the problem at hand. 

At times, she said, people believed that BPC was failing them while in actual fact power cut was caused by vandalism and theft of copper cables. She pleaded with all stakeholders to join forces with the corporation to fight the situation as it also affected businesses. 

Ms Kenewendo also pointed out that she learnt that the stolen underground cable carried high voltage and that during the theft, it caused explosion noting that they had received reports that someone suspected to be badly burnt by electricity was recuperating at the hospital.

The stolen cable, she said brought a misery to the community at large as they stayed some days without power and that forced the corporation to work tirelessly to stabilize the situation.

She expressed gratitude that finally power had been restored.  She thanked BPC team for their quick response saying issues of power cut were worrisome across the country.

However, the minister also had an opportunity to tour the Mawana power sub-station which was launched in 2021, to appreciate how it worked and also checked the progress on the solar power project that was intended to be connecting and complementing the main project.  

The Mawana mega project aimed to deliver quality and reliable electricity supply to  businesses and households in the North West region.

Minister Kenewendo acknowledged that the North West Transmission Grid connection  project would also connect Ghanzi to the nation grid via the transmission line from  Legotlhwane substation in Toteng.

BPC network services and supply manager, north, Mr Cassious Rampupunyane confirmed  that the cable theft took place around 2300 hours on Tuesday and affected the whole village including businesses and households.

The interruption, he said also affected the transmission network which distributed power to  surrounding areas adding that they also realized that the fault also introduced multiple of joints on the main line. 

He said they had to establish first the area that caused interruption to ensure proper  restoration and “we were fortunate as some passer-by alerted us that there was vandalism of the cables under the bridge hence we took long to restore power because to search for a fault underground is not an easy task". 

Mr Rampupunyane said they managed to fully restore power on Saturday and thanked members of the community for exercising patience during difficult times. ENDS