CoCT battles with vandalism, theft and illegal connections of electricity infrastructure

The City of Cape Town is battling to curb criminals from vandalism, theft and illegal connections in its electricity infrastructure. The municipality says it attended to more than 41 000 streetlight requests in the winter period, and over the same period between May and August, teams completed more than 130 600 total electricity-related service requests.

‘’We’re finishing up our winter wrap of electricity-related service requests. Our work is concluding on a strong note with more than 8 602 streetlight requests resolved in August alone and just under 30 000 overall electricity-related requests resolved. Over the winter period City energy teams attended to more than 41 000 streetlight requests and over the same period, teams completed more than 130 600 total electricity-related service requests. Over the warmer months, except where there are periods of extreme wind speeds, weather-related faults typically decrease but often damage from vandalism, theft and illegal connections remain a challenge,’’ said Xanthea Limberg, Mayoral Committee Member for Energy.

‘’Damage from vandalism, theft and illegal connections remain our biggest threat to our mission of safer and brighter communities. We will also continue to visit areas across the metro to drive our Protect Your Power campaign message. A lot of our electrical infrastructure such as cables, streetlights, transformers, kiosks, substations and others, are in our neighbourhoods and if we all stand together to report suspicious activity immediately, we can bring to justice those behind these infrastructure crimes. Damage from vandalism, theft, and illegal connections is often extensive, leading to longer repair times as entire grids and power infrastructure may be affected or require replacement,’’ she added.

COURTESY: CoCT

Area East – Helderberg, Oostenberg, Bloemhof, and Parow – saw the area with most requests logged with 3 645; followed by Area North – Vanguard, Mowbray, City, Atlantis -  with 2 316; and Area South - Mitchells Plain , Wynberg, Gugulethu, Muizenberg – with 2 544 requests logged.

‘’Our energy and law enforcement teams continue to be visible in all hotpot areas and we ask our residents to alert us to any suspicious activities in their neighbourhoods so that law enforcement agencies can respond swiftly and the criminals can be brought to book,’’ said Limberg.

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Done by: Mitchum George