Cable thieves in Johannesburg have disrupted services to about 4,000 Telkom customers, mostly businesses, the telecommunications utility said on Monday.

Telkom's Andrew Weldrick said thieves forced open a secure manhole during the early hours of the morning and stole a small amount of cable.

However, in doing so they cut lines to Telkom customers in Parktown North, Parkhurst, Craighall, Rosebank and Hyde Park.

Numbers affected all have 880-, 887- and 447- prefixes, Weldrick said.

"Technicians are working round the clock to repair the lines, despite the weather which is making it quite difficult. They are hoping to have the lines up during the course of tomorrow."

Weldrick also reminded the public that Telkom offered substantial rewards for information that led to the arrest and conviction of cable thieves.

Information could be passed to the company via the "crime buster's hotline" at 0860-124-000.

Sapa