RESIDENTS at the Kwatas area had to go through a few days without electricity just before the New Year as electricity theft hit the area hard.
According to the area’s councillor, Magda Viktor, the area faced a lot of issues during the festive season with a power box being run over, electricity relays being stolen and finally the cable theft that left most homes in the dark.
Despite the unfortunate ordeal, which is said to have cost the municipality roughly R100 000, Cllr Viktor said that she is highly grateful to the municipal workers who worked tirelessly to ensure that power was brought back to the area.
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According to a municipal official (who was part of the team that attended to the Kwatas situation but asked for his name not to be mentioned as he can’t make official comments on the municipality’s behalf), no arrests have yet been made and the copper that was stolen has not been recovered.
“It took us three days to restore power to the area and although we made good time, most residents unfortunately had to throw away most of their food as it got ruined while the power was off,” said this official.
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He went on to say that he does not believe that the copper was sold to a local recycling plant but urged the local police to make arrangements to patrol the area and for the community to form a Community Policing Forum to minimise such crimes in future as the area has a lot of copper conductors and these are often targeted by criminals.
