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Attempts to ‘destabilise’ city rife – Tshwane mayor
Msimanga blames power outages on cable theft.
There is an active attempt to “destabilise” the city’s administration, Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga has said.
Msimanga made the remarks during his recent state-of-the-capital address in reference to cable theft and other problems plaguing the city, Pretoria East Rekord reports.
READ MORE: Tshwane mayor lists capital’s most pressing problems
Over 1 498 occurrences of cable theft and vandalism were said to have been reported from November 2017.
“There are well-organised criminal syndicates operating throughout the country,” he said.
“The syndicates target the electrical networks of major infrastructure such as railway networks, electrical substations and water treatment plants.”
Msimanga said he would be meeting with other executive mayors in an effort to combat the problem.
“I will, on Tuesday, be meeting with the executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg as well as the executive mayor of the City of Ekuruleni,” he said.
“Cable theft needs a comprehensive and coordinated effort for us to ensure that we can provide sustainable and reliable electricity and water supply to our people.”
The Tshwane metro police department has an active cable theft unit and was “employing proactive measures such as physical guarding and patrols”.
Buyers of stolen cables were also warned in Msimanga’s speech.“We cannot target only those who steal cables, but we have to know where the material ends up and who is buying it,” he said.
“Buyers purchasing this stolen property will not be spared and will be subject to the law.”
Msimanga blamed the majority of the city’s power outages on cable theft and ageing infrastructure.
“I wish to apologise to the residents of the city who have been subjected to rolling power outages because of the thefts that have targeted our infrastructure,” Msimanga said.
“We are dealing with them as best as we can with the resources available to us.”
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