The increase in vandalism is hurting service delivery, warns Ward 72 councillor Kevin Southgate after the housing rental office in Retreat was set alight on Friday 8 September.
On the night, vandals broke into the premises on the corner of Cradock Road and Joe Marks Boulevard causing extensive damage to the building.
“The act of setting fire to the local housing rental office is a case in point. Vandals broke into the facility to steal the electrical wiring and in the process set the place alight probably with the intent of getting into the main building,” says Southgate.
He adds that, while the admin building was fortunately not affected, the damage to the premises was extensive.
“Cable theft and vandalism to electrical infrastructure have had a negative impact on the community with many residents sometimes having to go without electricity or water for days.
“The cost of repairs amount to millions of rand that could have been spent on other needs that exist within our communities.”
Southgate says residents often blame the municipality for not responding to service requests, yet fail to understand that outages are caused by perpetrators within the community.
“The perpetrators live among us, yet no one sees nor hears anything. While these acts of vandalism are allowed to continue our communities will suffer the consequences thereof.
“Councillors are trying their best to support safety structures such as neighbourhood watches and having capacity building programmes to try and address the challenges within our communities.”
Southgate concluded that all efforts remained futile until the community took responsibility for reporting crime and acts of vandalism.
