Cable theft and vandalism to be tackled head on

The wave of theft of cables from mini- and sub stations kicked the response of the Tshwane metro in high gear with numerous measures whereby it is hopes to stop this scourge.

In a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, mayor of Tshwane metro, revealed that the metro experienced 450 cases of cable theft or instillation vandalism from mini-substations, substations and cabling transformers.

‘’These acts are not only impacting on power supply. It erodes our financial recourses which is needed to improve service delivery and rejuvenate the network rather than replacing already working equipment,’’ Ramokgopa said.

He said the mayoral committee noted that incidents resembles the current criminal environment as manifested within illicit economic sector, containing a labyrinth of actors methods and intra-cyclical developments therewith negating the impact of traditional prosecution based approaches or facility security measures.
‘’To affectively disrupt this supply chain on a sustainable basis we musty attack the underlying root causes and factors underpinning the criminality.

The municipality has immediately started with an inclusive multipronged strategy consisting of law enforcement applications, including private prosecution and civil claims; intelligence determined execution of counter measures and strategies; community and business partnership to curb the trade and hiring of cable scavengers and thieves.

Other counter measures are increased security gathering; new technology in respect of chipping, tracing and tracking of goods; rewards for whistle blowers leading to arrests; increased security personnel; rapid response and reaction units at all instillations and camera covering,’’ he said.
Asked about the contract with the CPI firm which protected sub stations with guards but which to an end June, the mayor said that this contract will be renewed.

Kgosienso said that the vandalism at the Brakfontein and Kentron substations could not be prevented.

‘’We do not know who vandalised these stations. What is evident is that whoever they are had time on their hands to do what they did and knew what they were doing. Therefore, although we trust our of workforce we cannot rule out that this could also have been done by our own employees,” he said.

He apologised to the public and business community, for the discomfort and material and financial loss which occurred with the wide power failure.

To this end he had a special remark to waiters who live on tips that they receive, but were unable to work due to restaurants which closed as result of the power failure.

Technicians are busy repairing the Kentron substation. Due to the extent of the damage caused by the fire, it is not possible to give an exact time as to when the power to the Centurion Central Business District, Zwartkop, Highveld and Eco Park will be restored. Work is progressing well and technicians are trying their utmost to have it restored as soon as possible.

Ramokgopa added that residents might have to wait till Friday for power to be restored in some areas.

The public can report criminal activities to the PRIMEDIA Crime line: SMS 32211(costs are R1/SMS). And the Eskom Crime Reporting Line: 0800 11 27 22.

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