South African National Defence Force members will be deployed at some Eskom power stations following several incidents of theft and sabotage at various power stations.
The presidency made this request to the defence ministry, eNCA News reported citing Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.
The country has now been plunged into stage six power cuts.
Copper theft is not a phenomenon peculiar to South Africa as state companies and market players in Zimbabwe say the problem has surged in recent years.
It affects the electricity, telecommunications and transport sectors, and each year Zimbabwe’s parastatals spend millions of dollars replacing stolen cables and restoring vandalised infrastructure due to cable theft.
Organisations such as ZESA, TelOne, Econet, Telecel, NetOne, and the National Railways of Zimbabwe tell tales of loss of business due to the effects of copper cable theft that has been spreading uncontrolled.
Households too are affected as they are left to spend days without power and are sometimes asked to pull resources together for the purchase of copper cables.
It is suspected most of the stolen cables are being smuggled to South Africa and they are then shipped further to countries that use the metal in the construction and manufacturing industries.