It looks unsightly, but in an attempt to prevent cable thieves from again plundering the copper at the Arboretum (canal) robots on the John Ross Parkway, engineers have poured a huge concrete slab over the cable trench.
15 OCTOBER
Cable thieves cut robots
THE traffic lights at the Arboretum (canal) intersection of the John Ross Parkway were out of order on Monday morning after thieves stole the copper cable around sunrise.
‘I’m amazed that nobody saw or reported this,’ said an angry Andrew Payton, Senior Technical Assistant at the City of uMhlathuze.
‘The culprits dug a large trench, lifted concrete placed over the cables and then cut the cable – in full view of passing motorists just metres away.
‘It must have taken quite some time.
‘The repair bill will be around R30 000 and I doubt they will even get R30 for the copper.
‘We have visited all the scrap metal dealers, shown the cables and explained the situation, yet these people always find willing buyers.
‘Now we are left with an uncontrolled and extremely dangerous intersection where lives could be lost.’
Meanwhile, Payton said the outage over the weekend of the newly-installed eSikhaleni robots were not because of cable theft.
‘The big veld fires that raged on Friday caused damage to one of the poles carrying a step-down transformer, which resulted in power failure at the intersection.’
PHOTOS: DAVE SAVIDES
