PRA locks mini-substations to prevent theft
'We had to devise some form of locking mechanism because all the doors were now broken.'
Following the recent spate of fuse thefts from mini substations, Panorama Residents Association (PRA) Weltevreden Park have started a project to lock all mini-substations within the area that they manage.
According to PRA chairman Dave Baxter, many of the mini-substations do not have locking mechanisms on the doors anymore so they have taken the responsibility to install some.
“We have spoken to City Power Johannesburg – Official Page and they will provide the locks from their side for these. We hope that this will dramatically slow down the number of outages we have experienced in the past three weeks,” said Dave.
“The PRA managed to secure eight boxes on April 25 and will continue to do so till our whole area has been done.”
On April 12 PRA reported a random outage to City Power and that turned out to be the first incident of fuses being stolen from a mini-substation on Tenpins Avenue.
After the fuses were replaced a battery-powered alarm was installed by PRA; however things got worse as another seven mini-substations were opened and had fuses removed.
“We had to devise some form of locking mechanism because all the doors were now broken. After devising a plan, we started locking the mini-substations especially the more essential ones that the criminals seemed to be attacking.
“We locked 30 mini-substations within the boundaries of the PRA and now await City Power to come on board and provide locks.
“As the PRA we would like to work with all entities of the council through our councillors as we carry out the big plans that we have for our neighbourhood,” said Dave.
Members of the community are encouraged to join PRA for only R250 per year, or free for the first year if they are clients of either Beagle Watch Armed Response or EC Security. To sign up, email info@panoramaRA.co.za.
