East community initiative to thwart cable thieves
Residents, businesses and community organisations came together to put cable thieves between a rock and a hard place: they have cleaned the dense bush and overgrown vegetation and rolled rocks over the cables to conceal them and make it harder for thieves to access.
The Moreleta Park community has a few tricks up their sleeves to discourage cable thieves.
In the wake of a cable theft spree that plunged residents into darkness last week, residents, businesses, and community organisations have banded together to spearhead an initiative to tackle the scourge of cable theft.
The team cleaned the dense bush and overgrown vegetation under the overhead lines that have long concealed the city’s cable lines from prying eyes.
Deirdré van Helsdingen, the director of the Pretoria East Community Caring Forum (CCF), said the community has done this to improve visibility and exposure.
Van Helsdingen said the community contributed to hiring machinery used to push rocks to cover the cables.
“Last year we had a spate of cable theft, it happened frequently but we cleaned under the overhead lines and this helped prevent the scourge. Our intervention stopped the thieves,” she said.
Van Helsdingen said the cable was from the Mooikloof substation feeding into Moreleta Park.
“This theft is the first time in 18 months, however, we have come up with more measures we believe will be effective. We pushed rocks over the cables and opened the area for cameras in the nearby estate to have a better view.”
She said this will deter criminals from attempting to steal cables as they will have to remove the rocks while they are captured on cameras. Security and police will be able to catch them in the act.
“The community has decided to place rocks around the cable lines to make it more difficult for thieves to steal the cables. This will make the thieves’ activities more visible, so security cameras can capture their actions and the police can be notified. By making it harder for thieves to operate, the community hopes to discourage cable theft in the area,” she said.
She said Mooikloof Ridge Estate, Woodville Security Forum, and the State Security Agency (SSA) will help with cameras to monitor the area.
Ward 91 Councillor Henning Viljoen said the cameras in the area have been very effective in covering the sites, however, the criminals used the dense vegetation to be invincible.
“Berms are made to cover those channels for now.”
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