Valhalla seen as quick getaway by cable thieves
Valhalla residents were plunged into darkness on Wednesday after being hit by another cable theft.
The dark cloud hanging over certain parts of Centurion just would not clear as cable thieves yet again plunged Valhalla into darkness. The area has in the past few weeks been the target of several cable thefts and the mystery as to why Centurion is being targeted remains unclear.
Residents of Valhalla at Michael, Gota and Broadway South roads were left in the dark on Wednesday morning after being hit by another cable theft, councillor Ina Strijdom, the DA Tshwane spokesperson for electricity told Rekord.
According to Strijdom, the cables were stolen in the early hours of Wednesday morning. On Tuesday morning, areas such as Olga, Hugo and Oslo were also left without electricity due to cable theft. Strijdom confirmed that power was restored on Tuesday afternoon and that technicians were busy working on restoring power for areas affected on Wednesday morning. Asked why cable thieves were targeting Valhalla, Strijdom said many areas had been affected by cable theft but Valhalla is seen as a quick getaway. She said the areas were close to quick flight streets. “They never really steal cables in the inner suburbs. For example, they target Valhalla as it is close to the R55 freeway,” Strijdom explained. She said the cost for all the damages would be made public once the calculations were done.
On Tuesday, Lindela Mashigo, spokesperson for the Tshwane metro, said that the power outage was caused by theft of two overhead conductors in two separate locations.
“It is unfortunate that the residents must endure the disruption of services as a result of criminal actions. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to the affected residents.”
He warned residents to treat all electrical points as live. Switch off all non-essential appliances to assist with the load on the electrical network.
Previously the mayor of Tshwane, Kgosientso Ramokgopa, announced that the municipality would put law enforcement in place to help fight cable theft. After attempting to get a comment from the metro about the recent incidents in Centurion, management were not available for comment.
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