Vigilant residents thwart cable theft at Barnard Park substation

Lyttelton Manor was spared a dark long weekend after eagle-eyed residents spotted suspicious activity at a substation in the area.

Barnard Park substation in Cradock Avenue supplies a large part of the area with power, with incidents in the past frequently plunging the region into darkness.

On Thursday, two residents walking past noticed a sheet of cardboard that appeared to have blown against the substation gate.

The residents inspected it and found a large hole in the gate.

Ward 57 councillor David Farquharson said the incident could have left the area in the dark for Women’s Day.

“[The thieves] cunningly concealed the hole with a sheet of cardboard,” said Farquharson.

“Fortunately, the cardboard camouflage was detected before nightfall.”

The residents immediately alerted Monitor Net and their ward councillor.

Security officers responded and secured the site while waiting for metro electricity teams and the TMPD.

Break-in equipment including pliers and screwdrivers were found, while some disconnected equipment was removed.

“The cable thieves did steal some equipment, but were interrupted before they started dismantling the live feed equipment,” said Farquharson.

“If the [residents] were not so vigilant, Lyttelton and Kloofsig would have had a dark long weekend.”

Barnard Park substation is protected by a local private security company and is surrounded on three sides by electric fences of the Parke retirement village.

Cable theft incidents not only leave residents without power but also pose a fire hazard.

A fire just before Christmas in 2021 at the Kloofsig substation left a wide area in the dark during the holidays, while the overloaded Barnard Park substation had to take on the additional demands.

Following the fire, repairs and upgrades frequently left residents without power for hours.

At the time, residents called for the community to work together to protect the infrastructure.

A fire that was suspected to be caused by vandalism at Raslouw substation just off the R55 was extinguished on April 10.

At the time a large part of the Raslouw area was left without power, including the Sunderland Ridge industrial area, and the Lekkerhoekie region.

The area was also plagued by outages caused by cable theft and vandalism at the substation.

In July, businesses in the area came together to create a Community Upliftment Precinct (CUP) to protect the substation.

Michael Lamprecht, a representative from the Sunderland Ridge Business Community, which includes over 150 businesses, said the community was taking proactive steps.

“It was quite frustrating with all the recent cable theft issues. I would get constant messages from business owners to try and address the situation.”

The community had private security doing patrols along the cable routes, an armed guard on site, and was planning to instal a CCTV system.

During the 2024/25 Budget speech in June, Finance MMC Jacqui Uys said the city had allocated R20-million for battery surge protection at the substations.

The metro has been looking to protect other substations as R38-million was recently allocated to the upgrade of the Kentron substation, and R31-million to the construction and development of the planned Monavoni substation.

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