“Having no street lights outside of load shedding is a danger to us.”
These are sentiments echoed by many residents in numerous streets across the Mitchell’s Plain area. Following a press release on plans to repair damaged infrastructure in the Mitchell’s Plain area among other hotspots, People’s Post visited the area to get residents’ perspectives on what seems to be an increasing problem.
In the release, the City said they had received more than 350 vandalism reports for the first quarter of 2023. In March alone, 101 incidents were recorded with Area North being the worst affected. Mitchell’s Plain is the worst affected district with 30 recorded incidents. Beacon Valley, Lentegeur, Rocklands and Tafelsig are hotspot areas.
Merna George, who has lived in Rocklands for the past 37 years, says they have had sporadic streetlight issues.
“Load shedding has made it worse. When we have load shedding at night or early morning, it is the perfect time to steal the cables. I blame the scrap yards who are buying this,” she says.
Mogamat Prince, another resident, adds that this creates a bigger concern for crime.
“Stealing the cables is already a crime, but now the dark allows our people to be robbed. We already have load shedding for two or four hours. We could sometimes avoid this, but now its always dark. I don’t think people realise how big a difference even one or two lights being out makes,” he says.
The City confirms the vandalism has increased due to load shedding. “More than 500 service requests are currently being attended to and our electricity maintenance teams are working steadily through all repair and outage service requests. However, the City is prioritising all extended outage related area faults caused by load-shedding. This phenomenon is expected to get worse as the winter months take full hold and Eskom’s load-shedding continues likely at high stages. The City thanks residents for their support and understanding while our teams attend to the work as quickly as humanly possible,” says Mayco member for energy, Beverley van Reenen.
“In recent weeks, due to non-stop Eskom’s load-shedding at higher stages, more incidents of infrastructure vandalism have taken place under the cover of darkness. In many instances where street light control boxes or kiosks are damaged, a number of street lights are often impacted. Where severe theft and vandalism has taken place, turnaround times are often delayed due to the nature of the required repairs.”
Other ward councillors throughout the Mitchell’s Plain area also regularly log C3’s for street light repairs and vandalised infrastructure.
Recently, there have been electricity outages in wards 76 and 82, as reported by councillors. Ward 116 councillor and subcouncil 12 chair, Solomon Philander says the area has streetlights along all main arterial ways.
“The infrastructure has been hard hit by vandalism. This has a direct link where people feel unsafe. Dark streets create opportunities for crime to thrive especially where working people walk to and from public transport routes,” says Philander.
“In addition to this, we have many patients that have to go to health care centres for their schedule appoints. We know the working residents that have no other means of transport is forced to put their lives in danger to walk in the dark to and from public transport to get to work has no option. It is also the fact that while putting their lives in danger they are subjected to being robbed from their personal possession and assault.”
Van Reenen says the City is monitoring hotspots and have “boots on the ground to fight cable theft, vandalism and illegal connections”.
Community responsibility
Philander says: “The electricity department has been repairing the same infrastructure over and over due to vandalism. Beacon valley, Eastridge and Tafelsig in the subcouncil 12 area is amongst the highest vandalism of all.
‘The current plan from the perpetrators of vandalism to our infrastructure is hitting the control boxes leaving the community in dark for days if not weeks,” says Philander.
He adds that residents should safeguard their infrastructure.
The cost of repairs is high and the money could have been used for other development,” he says.
“It is very easy that the ward councillor or council are the ones who gets blamed for lights not working, however, we are for long keeping silent about those perpetrators of crime that affects the greater community negatively.”
He says fencing of sub stations in the area has minimal impact, as the vandalism continues. He urges residents to report criminals. “Many of our community want to work together with government but it is the very small group that want to destroy all the hard work and existing infrastructure. This can not be allowed. I want to say thank you to the community that is already taking action,” he says.
Department officials were in the Ward 116 area repairing damaged infrastructure over the weekend of Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 May to restore power to Beacon Valley, Philander confirms.
“The electrical department needs to continue the works in Apline Road in the week due to the severity of the damages to the infrastructure. Putting more money to fix the infrastructure is not a solution. We need the community to work with the City to protect the infrastructure,” he says.
Plan of action
R40 million has been budgeted to help fight the vandalising of energy infrastructure, she adds.
“This allocation is to support law enforcement deployment, enhance security at key points and increase monitoring. This does not include the millions of rand required to fix vandalised infrastructure.”
Residents are urged to report damage via the following methods:
- SMS: 31220
- Call 0800 1100 77
- Email: power@capetown.gov.za
- Anonymous tip-offs welcomed and a reward of R5 000 is available for tip offs that lead to arrests.
