Bonteheuwel substation explodes

The City of Cape Town says it has seen a downward trend in electricity vandalism, theft and illegal connections in some districts of the city.

In the first three months of this year, the Metal Theft Unit arrested 54 suspects, issued just over 2 000 fines, recovered hundreds of kilograms of infrastructure belonging to the City, Eskom, Telkom and other entities. In addition, they conducted 561 inspections at scrapyards, during which they issued 95 warning notices and closed 29 facilities.

Despite the downward trend says the City, it remains a challenge. The latest incident occurred in Bonteheuwel.

‘’Ongoing electricity infrastructure vandalism in Bonteheuwel is causing much inconvenience to residents in the area. Not only is repair work costing thousands of rands it is also places residents in an extremely difficult situation being without electricity for extended periods of time,’’ said Ward councillor, Angus Mckenzie.

‘’These outages during the cold and wet rainy days places families in positions of not having a warm plate of food, lights to keep safe or even a heater to keep warm. While gang shooting and gang activity has seen a huge reduction it would appear that we have swapped gang shooting for cable theft and drain cover theft,’’ added McKenzie.

McKenzie says that residents were left without electricity on Thursday, after an outside electricity substation was severely vandalised in Citrus Street causing it to explode.

McKenzie urged residents to report illegal activities.

‘’I would strongly encourage residents to use our tip off line to report those causing this financial and practical inconvenience as they have in reducing gang violence, this can be done by whatsapp to ‪0824441850 with all the relevant information. Alternatively, residents can contact ‪0214807700 to provide that information.’’

‘’Please don’t allow your family or friends to place you and others in this position, keep the lights on, keep our community safe and “piemp” those that chose not to share our collective vision,’’ added McKenzie.

Done By: Mitchum George