ETHEKWINI Municipality disconnected thousands of illegal electricity wires on Friday in the Sitaram and Imona informal settlements, in its fight against illegal connections. The joint operation was undertaken by officials of the city’s Electricity Unit, Eskom, Telkom SAPS and other law enforcement agencies.
The informal settlements were situated in an area was identified as one of the City’s illegal connection hotspots. They were enclosed by a web of live wires that hung dangerously over wire fencing, trees, houses, washing lines and in pathways.
A senior technician from the Revenue Protection Unit said the area was selected for the joint operation due to a growing number of reports of people and livestock being electrocuted.
The official said he suspected that a syndicate was operating in the area. Police and the City forensic team would be handling the matter.
He said the City had held a number of successful disconnection operations in recent months but there were still challenges such as illegal reconnections. Further clean-ups operations have been scheduled in other areas.
“As much as this is for the good of the community we are met with resistance from residents. During disconnection operations people become volatile and threaten us. We always bring armed law enforcement with us as the community can become violent,” he said.
The Municipality has continuously warned residents against cable and electricity theft as it often results in devastating and tragic consequences such as loss of life as well as damage to infrastructure which costs the Municipality approximately R230 million annually.
Several initiatives including modifications to the infrastructure have been taken to minimise the impact of illegal connections. Among these are:
•Frequent removal of illegal connections. Some perpetrators have been arrested however, charges are often dropped due to the lack of tangible evidence and the low fines imposed are not a deterrent;
•Affected service connections have been converted from underground mains to overhead mains to minimise the interruption of supply to customers;
•The overhead, bare copper, low voltage circuits have been replaced with aerial bundled conductor (ABC) as a deterrent to tapping onto the exposed copper lines;
•Circuits have been reconfigured to reduce the interruption of supplies;
•Awareness programmes are conducted regularly to educate customers and residents on safety, reporting the theft of electricity and the consequences of connecting electricity illegally and;
•Short poles have been replaced with longer ones to prevent access to the overhead cables/connections.
EThekwini Mayor James Nxumalo invites the public to share their ideas with the City, including any advanced cable theft prevention methods to help in the fight against this crime.
Any suspicion of cable theft must be reported to the following numbers:
•Electricity’s call centre 080 13 13 111, sms: 083 700 0819 or email custocare@elec.durban.gov.za
•Cable Theft Hotline 031 311 9611
•SAPS 10111
•Metro Police Emergency Line 031 361 0000.
