Theo van Vuuren’s Facebook page has been keeping people up to date on the power outages that has affected Tasbet park over the past weekend. However on Tuesday, June 24 the news came that the power issue was caused because of vandals that steal a specific part from the sub stations called magnefix switches.
Due to the high amount of thefts that have occurred over the past two weeks the electrical department has run out of stock of these switches. The deputy Director at the municipality Colin Brentjies reached out to the community in a statement saying, “, if anyone has seen or know of anyone with spares please inform me urgently.” The areas that have been affected are Tasbet Park, Model Park and Rietspruit. Mellisa Minaar a spokesperson for the municipality that manages Van Vurren’s Facebook pages posted a statement later that same day. “We currently have no spare links a new inter switch will be installed tomorrow to replace the arrangement that requires links.
It is estimated to be a twelve hours job it must also be noted that this is not an electrical fault, it is a security one.
The issue is not a new challenge for the community and the municipality. In March 2014 municipality representatives arrived at a local scrap yard with information that some of these links were sold to the scrap yard. They allegedly found the link casings with any precious metal stripped away already.
Two people were arrested that day. Theo van Vuuren also commented then about how much it is setting our local government back every time one of these switches get stolen. He said, “The links cost the municipality over R1000 each, but they have a resale value of a little as R10.” Scrap yards managers and staff are urged to contact the police if anyone tries to sell these devices as scrap metal.
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