Spotlight on cable theft

City Power budgeted R234 million for the maintenance of street lights in the past financial year.

This was revealed after Randburg Sun contacted the municipal entity after video footage emerged on social media of a man stealing cables from a street light in broad daylight in Randpark Ridge.

To see the video, click here.

Ward 134 councillor Wendy Alexander and her DA replacement candidate, Devon Steenkamp and a resident visited Honeydew Police station to see if they could open a case of theft, only to be told City Power had to do so.

The entity did this about three weeks after the incident.

“We have a huge problem of streetlight vandalism in the City of Johannesburg,” said City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena.

“This from theft of fittings, covers, to theft of photocells, overhead and underground cables and the actual moving down of the streetlights. In some areas including Lenasia, and on Malibongwe [Drive] towards Lanseria the streetlights have been mowed down… While most is done by those who sell to the scrapyards, we also believe criminals like to operate in darkness and as such they deliberately damage the streetlights.”

He said City Power has about 300 000 street lights in Joburg, including in areas supplied by Eskom, such as Sandton, Soweto, Diepsloot, Orange Farm, Ivory and Cosmo City.

“The streetlights are very important in reducing crime, leading to safer cities. Most people get attacked, [and] women get raped at night in dark alleys where there are no streetlights. Hijackings happen in poorly-lit roads.”

Mangena said City Power conducts routine maintenance and twice a month teams from all the depots go around at night to spot faulty lights.

“In some areas we are considering installation [of] high mast lights, especially where we had repeat vandalism of streetlights. This is because high masts are not easy to vandalise. We are also working to deploy technology to ensure vandalism and theft of streetlights and cables is curbed.”