The Tshwane metro has vowed to get to the bottom of substation vandalism and cable theft in Centurion.
This after it gave cable theft at the Raslouw substation as the reason for last week’s widespread power outage that saw large parts of Centurion go dark.
These areas included parts of Wierda Park and the Copperleaf estate which experienced outages on Friday.
Metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said cable theft in the area remained a challenge.
“There have been successes by law enforcement agencies,” he said.
“Whatever the motive may be, [substation vandalism] borders on criminality and it should be treated as such. The law enforcement agencies have informed any acts of vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure whenever they occur.”
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Mashigo said the metro would continue to beef up its efforts to protect cables but it seems criminals were taking advantage of scheduled outages.
Local ward councillor Kingsley Wakelin said two cables had been stolen during the course of last week.
“The thefts tend to occur when the power is turned off for load-shedding,” said Wakelin.
Wakelin said much had already been done including increasing security at the Heuweloord substation last year.
In July of last year, several safety measures including security cameras and patrols were implemented at the substation.
“Since we implemented the security measures we have had minimal security issues,” said Wakelin.
Similar measures had been implemented at other substations in and around Centurion.
ALSO READ: Attempted cable theft sees parts of Centurion without power
Wakelin said private security companies were patrolling the area where cables were stolen.
Utility services MMC Abel Tau last week echoed Wakelin’s comments that cable thieves strike during load-shedding hours and said the city needed a strategy around the issue of cable theft.
Tau said there was a security issue as most City infrastructure was “under siege”.
“It’s shocking what is going on, it is blatant sabotage, we suspect there are people tampering with systems,” he said.
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