The City of Cape Town is calling on residents to help them with the fight against electricity infrastructure theft, damage and vandalism.
In the last quarter of 2023, 353 incidents of vandalism,theft and illegal connections damage were recorded, with the majority of
incidents occurring in the southern districts.
COURTESY: Mitchum GeorgeArea South recorded 271 incidents (77%) from October to
December 2023.The Mitchells Plain district remains one of the hardest hit
districts with 137 (39%) incidents alone. Area East recorded 70 incidents, Area
North recorded 12 incidents.
‘’This district not only includes areas within Mitchells
Plain but areas outside of the region such as Lotus River, Grassy Park and
Philippi. All these areas are hotspots for vandalism and illegal connections. Not
only does vandalism to infrastructure cost the City millions to fix, but it
impacts on repair turnaround times as damaged infrastructure often takes time
to replace and repair,’’ said Beverely van Reenen, Mayco Member for Energy.
The MMC said the damaged infrastructure across the metro of
353 incidents, it will set back the City by approximately R5,7 million to
repair and replace
‘’While we are seeing much lower incidents in Eastern and
Northern regions, vandalism in Area South and Mitchells Plain in particular
remains a challenge. A large majority of these incidents are taking place under
the cover of darkness and during load-shedding,' said Beverley Van Reenen, MMC
for for Energy.
She raised concerns about the continued increase of vandalism
and illegal connections
‘’Over the last five years we have seen an exponential
growth in the number of incidents in the metro. The sheer number of incidents
as well as the many reoccurring incidents has had a major impact on turnaround
times and on staff capacity to restore power or to fix the affected street
lighting.’’
The City Energy teams, including the Energy Law Enforcement
and Technical Unit (ELETU) teams, have increased efforts to protect infrastructure
in communities.
‘’While we have seen success in some hotspot areas, many
other regions such Mitchells Plain have seen more incidents taking place. We
are once again calling on the community to be our eyes and ears and to report
to the City and SAPS,’’ said van Reenen,
‘’As a result of our illegal connection disconnection
operations, areas such as Mfuleni and Philippi have seen fewer cases of
prolonged outages and tripping. Our zero tolerance towards illegal activity is
clear and we will continue to protect all communities, residents and
infrastructure,’’ she added.
Done by: Mitchum George
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