Cable thieves cost city millions

CABLE theft has become a serious problem in eThekwini and together with damage to infrastructure, costs the city a conservative R40m per year with the total bill, including indirect costs, being a whopping R230m.

This was revealed by mayor James Nxumalo who expressed his dismay after discovering that just six months after the city replaced 20 vandalised electricity poles at a cost of about R140 000 along a busy Durban freeway, the same poles had been sabotaged.

Addressing members of the media at City Hall, Nxumalo said cable theft had become a serious problem with the municipality constantly having to replace damaged infrastructure.

Nxumalo said he had noticed the the vandalised concrete street poles along Solomon Mahlangu (Edwin Swales) Drive, earlier this week.

“This is clearly being done by an organised crime group. The previous street light poles that had been vandalised were made of steel. Our Electricity Unit then replaced the steel poles with concrete poles and those were again cut. Security must be beefed up in all strategic areas,” said Nxumalo.

Nxumalo added that the poles had been moved to the centre island to make them more difficult to access, but this clearly did not deter criminals.

When Nxumalo first visited the area in November last year, the tall street lights had been cut at the base of the poles on either side of a 1 kilometer stretch of the road and the copper wiring had been removed before the criminals moved on to the next pole.

Once the poles were felled, they were also able to reach the lights, and stole some of them too.

With each new pole and installation costing R7 000, the Municipality coughed up R140 000 to replace the poles.

He said the existing poles could not be repaired as the City could not take the chance of a repaired pole falling onto traffic.

Nxumalo said it was now dangerous for motorists as until new poles could be installed, the stretch of road would be in darkness which could possible lead to accidents occurring.

In a bid to counter cable theft, the City has changed from using wooden street poles to steel poles, running the copper cabling inside the new, taller steel poles.

There are CCTV cameras on Solomon Mahlangu Drive, but they face away from the section where the thieves have struck. Nxumalo has called for extra cameras to be installed.

Nxumalo urged anyone who may have seen the thieves to contact the police.

“Acts of vandalism, like electricity and cable theft, cannot be addressed by the Municipality and the police alone. They call for vigilance from everyone and people must not look away when they know that their relatives, neighbours and friends are involved in such illicit activities,” said Nxumalo.

Any suspicion of cable theft should be reported to the following numbers:

Electricity call centre 080 13 13 111; sms: 083 700 0819 or email custocare@elec.durban.gov.za

The cable theft hotline is 031 311 9611 and the SAPS number is 10111.