Govan Mbeki Municipality has plans on the table to fight theft and vandalism of municipal infrastructure.
The executive mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, said at a media briefing held at the library auditorium on Monday, September, 20, that the municipality had to spend more than R30 million in the past financial year to repair vandalised infrastructure.
He said they have installed more than 50 transformers of which some were vandalised and others damaged due to cable theft.
“Some of the frustrations which we faced, are in the form of criminality that cause instability within our community.
“Recently we are faced with what we believe is a syndicate.
“They are removing entire cables and breakers of minisub stations. It is clear that these people have capacity and equipment because whatever is inside the minisubs, it is so heavy that it cannot be lifted by hand.”
Mr Zuma said that in less than three months, the municipality has lost four mini substations and this affects most of the areas in Bethal and eMzinoni.
“It has spread even beyond Bethal’s borders and is now also affecting Secunda,” said Mr Zuma.
The mayor said Secunda has lost three mini substations in the past 30 days.
This affected businesses and residents alike, because the municipality was not in a position to immediately stop the crime. He said the municipality is embarking on a strategy to halt the vandals.
Mr Zuma said the electricity capacity from Eskom to Bethal and eMzinoni is sufficient and that the electricity issues are due to problems with the infrastructure.
He said the municipality is licensed to distribute electricity.
They then appointed Gert Sibande District Municipality to fix the infrastructure issues at Mzinoni and Bethal.
The GSDM in turn appointed Enpower Machite to repair the infrastructure and put systems in place to prevent electricity loss and theft.
Mr Zuma claims this appointment was not to take over the electricity distribution. The mayor further spoke about sewage spills that remain a challenge.
He agreed that their infrastructure is old and said the municipality is trying to upgrade it while keeping up with the maintenance.
Mr Zuma claimed theft of cables supplying electricity to the pumps that are pumping sewage to the water treatment plant and pump stations is the biggest culprit.
“We are currently implementing security upgrades and we hope that it will have an impact.”
He did not want to elaborate on what this entails because it will be in breach safety protocols.
“We call on our communities, the security cluster which includes the police, and private security companies to join hands to stop criminals from interfering with the infrastructure of the municipality.
“Only municipality employees that are allowed to touch infrastructure and only those service provider that are appointed by the municipality are allowed to work on infrastructure.
“We request community members to report any activity that they see taking place next to equipment that is used for service delivery,” said Mr Zuma.
