Handful of arrests not welcomed

The recent arrest of a man for the possession of stolen manhole covers was described as an arrest that was “too little too late”.

The man was found in possession of Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), Joburg Water and Telkom manhole covers to the replacement value of R60 000 on March 20.

Clr Victor Penning, a Kensington resident, believes the theft of manhole covers is not taken as seriously as it should be.

“There have been just a few arrests. This crime is taking place on a daily basis and only a handful of people are arrested. Authorities are ‘sleeping’. All scrapyards should be checked,” he said.

Clr Penning raised his concerns about the theft of manhole covers on numerous occasions at community police forum meetings.

Last week he said, “Even people pulling trolleys should be checked. This is how some thieves are getting away with metal covers.”

He said the city should have removed all the old manhole covers years ago and sold them to make some money back instead of leaving them for thieves to steal.

“The city could have closed the open manholes with plastic covers or something else with no value,” he said.

He also raised concern about the lack of urgency to close open manholes.

“I reported an open manhole in Jupiter Street more than a year ago. It remains open. We will have serious problems if someone falls into an open manhole,” he said.

He added that the JRA also needs to improve is workmanship in areas where work has been conducted.

“When manhole covers are replaced, they are done so in a shabby way. In some places where covers were replaced, it was done so dangerously. They are either placed too deep or too high,” said Clr Penning.

Ms Bertha Peters-Scheepers, from the JRA, said the agency has been able to apprehend more suspects for stealing and being in possession of JRA assets in different parts of the city.

This was made possible through the assistance of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), the SAPS and other security companies.

“The agency is in the process of creating an Infrastructure Protection Unit to ensure a more effective response to vandalism and theft through closer institutional relationships with the JMPD, SAPS and security companies.

“The JRA is in the process of replacing kerb inlet slabs that have missing manholes on them, which forms part of the roll out programme for the entire Region F. Several storm water slabs have already been replaced in ward 66 and as these slabs are received from the supplier, the JRA will continue replacing. The JRA has been investigating alternative materials for manhole covers that offer less of an enticement to criminals,” she said.

She added that while the agency acknowledges the concerns of the community members like Clr Penning, it also requests members of the community to report all acts of vandalism and theft of the road infrastructure and city furniture.

Warrant Officer Richard Munyai, the Jeppe SAPS communications officer, did previously state that scrapyards in the precinct are being dealt with.

Anyone with information on activities of vandalism and theft can contact the City of Johannesburg’s call centre on 0860 562 874.

Alternatively, these activities can be reported to the SAPS or JMPD.