- Cable theft is increasing at an alarming rate around Cape Town.
- The City of Cape Town has spent around R83 million this year, R56 million last year, R28 million in 2021, R14 million in 2020 and R20 million in 2019 on repairs to stolen and damaged infrastructure, showing a steep incline in vandalism over the past year alone.
- Street light repairs have been concluded several times along Klipfontein Road with the City now running cables between light poles on top rather than underfoot.
Cable theft is increasing at an alarming rate around Cape Town.
This is evident not only by the number of holes and trenches dug around lamp poles but also in the almost R30 million additional spent on replacing vandalised electricity infrastructure across the metro, as opposed to the previous year.
Mayco member for energy Beverly van Reenen says the City of Cape Town has spent around R83 million this year, R56 million last year, R28 million in 2021, R14 million in 2020 and R20 million in 2019 on repairs to stolen and damaged infrastructure, showing a steep incline in vandalism over the past year alone.
While People’s Post enquired specifically about the clear vandalism of cables in the Klipfontein corridor, the statistics for this area were unavailable.
“Klipfontein Road falls into the City’s Area North, which has been hit hard by theft, vandalism and illegal connection incidents in recent years,” said Van Reenen.
As an indication, in the 2022-’23 financial year, there have been 127 cases reported in Area East, 379 in Area South and 406 in Area North.
“The growth has been exponential in recent years and appears to be spiralling out of control,” Van Reenen said. “Load shedding is a major contributor and is making the situation even worse with the copper thieves or vandals having more time to strip the equipment while it is off and taking advantage of the cover of darkness. This has made a major impact on turnaround times to repair or replace infrastructure and restore power.”
Street light repairs have been concluded several times along Klipfontein Road, residents tell People’s Post, with the City now running cables between light poles on top rather than underfoot.
“Illegal connections are often run by large well-oiled and lucrative criminal syndicates. Illegal connections are illegal,” Van Reenen said. “For all these reasons, it is incumbent on all authorities to act to reduce these risks and help from the community is vital. City operations in its supply areas have been ongoing. However, the City has started making these operations more visible through its communication. Another boost for the efforts has been the establishment of the Energy Safety Team, comprising energy and law enforcement officials.”
Areas along Klipfontein Road have the new LED street lights, which have replaced the former halogen bulbs.
The City’s LED retrofitting programme aims to fit 7 150 LED luminaries in areas across the city every year, while the refurbishment and maintenance of existing street-light infrastructure continues, Van Reenen added.
“The lights were replaced last year at a cost of R1,15 million but, unfortunately, there has been a spate of repeated cable theft in this area, which causes our staff to repeatedly return to work in the area to re-instate the stolen cables. The cables are stolen within days of being re-instated and it is not sustainable for us to keep re-instating these cables.”
Van Reenen calls on residents to assist by reporting any suspicious behaviour to the City’s Law Enforcement or Fraud Hotline on 0800 1100 77 or the police, the lead authority in crime prevention.
