Ward 110 councillor Angelinah Mphaho said the recent spike in cable theft was a concern in the area.
This is to the dismay of many residents who have spent many cold winter nights in the dark.
A resident from President Park AH, Yvette Page claimed in July they experienced two cable theft incidents, one on July 19 between 00:00 and 1:00.
“This is the second time in a month this has taken place regarding the same cable. We need the case escalated as it is becoming unbearable to live like this. I have my 72-year-old mother living with me which means that she has been sitting without power for four days now, alone, because I work during the day,” said Page.
Another resident Carin Marais posted on Twitter on August 11: ‘Do you have any news on the outage in President Park, Midrand @Eskom_SA? Power has been off for a couple of hours now.’
Mphaho urged community members not only to report cable theft but also to work together with police in apprehending the perpetrators.
“Currently we are engaging police and the community at large to work together. I would also like to encourage the community to be active. Not cry foul, because they are most affected, united we stand against the cable theft,” said Mphaho.
She said she had spoken to Midrand police regarding cable theft which mostly occurred during load-shedding or load reduction.
Midrand police spokesperson Constable Eliot Mabulane confirmed that they had met with Mphaho. “An urgent community meeting needs to be held with our members present to come up with a plan to fight the scourge of cable theft. The Acting Station Commander Colonel Hosea Mantji has vowed to work with the community of President Park and Glen Austin regarding cable theft by deploying our members in those areas.”
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said, “The area is plagued by vandalism which has been going on for a long time, and has been an inconvenience to the residents of President Park and Glen Austin who are forced to endure constant outages.”
He said the power utility had come up with several measures to protect its customers.
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