The City of Johannesburg has urged residents to report cable thieves who are allegedly responsible for several outages in recent weeks in the township.
City Power has noted a peak in the occurrence of power outages in Alexandra and said this was due to escalating incidents of cable theft and vandalism of infrastructure resulting in electricity supply interruptions.
“City Power encourages residents to report suspicious or fraudulent behaviour because these offences compromise the stability of the network and affect service delivery in the area,” said Yumna Sheik, spokesperson for City Power.
“The more frequently residents report cable theft incidents, the easier it becomes for City Power to monitor trends related to cable theft in communities where these crimes are typically prevalent. This information ensures the correct resources are dispatched to areas where they are most required.”
City Power will also be conducting educational awareness initiatives in communities affected by cable theft, while residents are also urged to report trolley pushers suspected of being cable thieves.
In the past financial year, City Power has made more than 250 arrests related to cable theft and damage to infrastructure. More than R14 million is lost annually in the city due to cable theft and network vandalism.
“We have launched a campaign to fight the scourge of cable theft using response vehicles which patrol high-risk areas based on theft and vandalism statistics,” said Sheik.
“However, there are limitations to using patrol vehicles because they are unable to cover large areas, making it difficult to prevent every cable theft incident.
“We have, however, conducted joint operations with the police, Metro police and scrap metal dealers because we know this is where criminals sell stolen cables.”
He added that City Power was installing aerial bundle conductors (ABCs) across the city to discourage cables thieves. “The ABC is made of aluminium which is of no value to cable thieves.”
Details: 011 490 7900/7911/7504/7553; toll-free 0800 002 587.
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