Electricity theft and vandalism cost Ward 93 residents dearly, says councillor
Councillor Vino Reddy calls for urgent collaboration between Eskom, City Power, and communities to protect vital assets and prevent prolonged outages.
Ward 93 councillor Vino Reddy has raised the alarm over the escalating vandalism of mini substations in the area, affecting residents serviced by both Eskom and City Power.
He said recent weeks have seen an escalation in mini sub vandalism in the ward hitting residents serviced by both Eskom and City Power.
“Residents have been hardest hit by the outages which has been exacerbated by the extremely cold weather,” said Reddy.
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“The most recent victims of both utilities started on June 24 with a brazen ‘attack’ on a mini sub in Magaliessig that’s been secured by residents with a fence, cameras and security patrols. This community has been hit constantly, with the residents banding together to safeguard themselves from prolonged outages as a result of cable theft. I’m told response was on site within 11 minutes which was long enough to leave them without power.”
Reddy said he had noted that no infrastructure seemed safe, “No power box it seems is safe .. a small box was vandalised leaving two homes in Paulshof without power.”
He linked the latest incident to one that occurred last week. “This is reminiscent of the outage experienced in Paulshof West on June 19. A small box was vandalised and through the outage a larger mini sub was broken into leading to a much larger outage that affected some residents for three days. This is inconceivable that we have to endure such brazen behaviour in the modern era of high tech equipment, communication and enhanced security.”
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On the issue of responsibility, Reddy said, “We can hold both utilities responsible for repairs and more importantly for securing their infrastructure but given the scale of the vandalism and theft, both are reeling from repairs and replacement costs.
“Whilst I’m an ardent proponent of ‘It’s their infrastructure hence their responsibility’, but ultimately, it’s our money that’s being sunk into these two-loss making bottomless money pits.”
He also stressed that security measures currently in place were not enough, “Today events have shown that traditional security methods, whilst a major deterrent, is still vulnerable to vandalism and theft. I call on both Eskom and City Power to stand together with the residents and work on a common but effective security measure to safeguard their infrastructure.
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“Power outages are a huge expense (power generation, increased security, loss of trade) to businesses and residents alike; the cost to our economy is astronomical.
“We have to ask the question ‘How can we help you, to help and protect ourselves’?”
City Power and Eskom were contacted for comment but none was received at the time of publication.
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