The Herald visited several municipal substations in Carletonville following many complaints about cable theft disrupting ratepayers’ lives recently. Unfortunately, despite the municipality’s claims of securing this infrastructure, even a rookie thief would be able to break into many of them. We do not list the streets concerned to avoid tipping criminals off on which to target. The gates to most municipal substations the Herald visited are not even locked. Many of them are not even fenced. To make matters worse, the front doors of the substations are often not locked either. In some cases, there are locks on the doors but they are not locked. At one substation in the eastern part of town, the doors to the substation have been secured with a nut and bolt that are easy to remove. Some substations have holes in their fences, allowing thieves easy access. The side windows of at least three substations have also been removed, so the offenders can climb in and carry the stolen cables out. The Herald contacted Mr Eugene (Pottie) Potgieter of Gladiator, after social media complaints that it had failed to guard the substations as it was supposed to. “I can understand the public’s concerns and am just as frustrated with the situation as they are,” says Potgieter. He says Gladiator agreed to guard some of the municipal substations last year. “When we started, I recommended several interventions to secure the sub-stations. None of them materialised because the municipality said it does not have the necessary funds. The fact is, the cost of repairs and replacement of the stolen infrastructure is greater than it would have been to secure the area in the first place. I also recommended a dedicated technical manager to manage the alarms and ensure that everything at the substations is in order as an added value to the service level agreement. Merafong did not have the funds to afford that, either,” Potgieter says.
Gladiator also recommended that the fences on the outer perimeter of the substations should be repaired. There should be a “no-man’s-land” between the inner and outer perimeter fences that is kept open by regularly applying weed killer. It is currently too easy for criminals to hide. The inner perimeter fences should be electrified as a deterrent and to raise an early alarm in the event of an intrusion. Security beams should also be installed to secure the transformers outside, which are currently unprotected. Should the outer perimeter be compromised, the inner perimeter electric fence or beam in the no-man’s-land (between fences) would activate. This should delay the criminal activity and reduce the damage caused before the response units arrive. Potgieter told the Herald that, not only has their equipment been stolen from the substations through the municipality’s neglect, but Merafong had failed to pay Gladiator for more than six months. The municipality is currently in arrears to the tune of R150,000. “Gladiator continued to respond to the alarms at the substations as a service to the community and our clients who are affected. Some residents are on oxygen support and it could be fatal if their electricity goes off. The current state of affairs affects Gladiator’s good name and reputation, yet we have no control over the situation,” says Potgieter. Potgieter gave the municipality notice that it would stop its services on Friday, 28 May if it did not pay the outstanding account. Merafong suddenly responded to Gladiator after the Herald sent them related questions on Tuesday. However, it still did not reply to the newspaper’s queries. Following an urgent meeting with the acting municipal manager yesterday morning, Potgieter is positive that the matter will be addressed.
