ETHEKWINI Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda urged the community to partner with the City to help fight the scourge of cable theft .
This comes in response to claims that the City’s efforts to provide water are severely plagued by loadshedding and cable theft.
Kaunda said for the city to pump water to reservoirs, it relies on power and in the event of any power outage, it becomes an uphill battle to provide water normally.
This is as a result of water being depleted from the reservoirs after the malfunctioning of pumps.
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He said building capacity to reservoirs takes numerous hours and this means during this process not a single drop drips from taps which causes frustration to residents.
The current rolling blackouts have compounded the City’s woes and Kaunda is calling upon the community to work with the City in these turbulent times.
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“Under no circumstances shall we deliberately deprive our communities water. We are facing a situation that is abnormal and beyond our control and requires that we work together to triumph over it. Our cables are stolen frequently and this is of major concern. Sadly, some members of the community are fully aware of this illicit behaviour and they choose not to report these criminals. We are fully aware that our people are bearing the brunt of unemployment, but stealing municipal infrastructure is worsening our problems. This needs to come to a stop or risk living permanently without running water,” warned Kaunda.
He welcomed the arrest of two men alleged to be part of a syndicate that is stealing the city’s power cables.
“I would like to commend our law enforcement agencies who upon receiving a tip off, moved with speed and intercepted a truck laden with our cables worth over R2-million. I am calling upon institutions responsible for dispensing justice to make an example of these men. It is the responsibility of all of us to protect municipal infrastructure because the improvement of our well-being hinges upon it. Thieves must always be isolated,” said Kaunda.
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