eThekwini gets serious about cable theft
eThekwini Municipality steps up its fight against cable theft.
ETHEKWINI Municipality is getting serious about cable theft after being inundated with complaints from the public about power outages resulting from the criminal acts of electricity and cable theft.
Cable and electricity costs around R230 million annually, the municipality said in a statement last week.
They said that in many instances, innocent children, including toddlers, die when they come into contact with uninsulated electrical wires in their homes, in streets and in the open fields where they play.
Mayor, James Nxumalo, said these offenders have an ” inflated sense of entitlement in both attitude and behaviour” which he said would not be tolerated.
“It pains me to see some members of our society reducing themselves to such levels of lawlessness. The city’s ratepayers are the backbone of this municipality and they are often inconvenienced by these power outages leading to the reduced enjoyment of the services they pay for,” he said.
Nxumalo said electricity and cable thieves must be stopped. “The negative impacts of illegal electricity connections include the hefty costs of replacement of infrastructure and hiring security, the shutdown of business operations, loss of income and loss of exports. Cable theft also results in power, communication lines and transport network outages and leads to negative investor perceptions,” he said.
The municipality has extended services to struggling residents living in informal settlements by providing them with interim services that include water and sanitation as well as electricity to qualifying informal settlements.
Nxumalo has called on all residents to act in a responsible manner saying that in the spirit of late former president, Nelson Mandela, such incidents should not exist in our society.
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others,” Mandela once said.
Nxumalo further urged all citizens to demonstrate civic pride and a sense of co-ownership of resources, assets and the environment we live in.
“We should all play our part towards enhancing the economic, social and cultural diversity of our city, by not vandalising municipal or community infrastructure and infringing by-laws,” said Nxumalo.
He said acts of vandalism taking place in communities cannot be addressed by the municipality and police alone. They require vigilance from community members. He said people must not look away when they know that their relatives, neighbours and friends are involved in these illicit activities.
The scourge of illegal electricity connection has been an ongoing challenge in the municipality.
Several initiatives and modifications to the infrastructure have been taken to minimise the impact of illegal connections.
The following are some of the modifications made to the infrastructure and/or initiatives taken in an effort to overcome the problem:
•Frequent removal of illegal connections: The municipality’s illegal services contractor teams, escorted by the security guards, remove illegal connections on a regular basis. Some of the perpetrators of these illegal activities 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 these 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 have been conducted to educate customers/citizens on safety, reporting of the theft of electricity and the consequences of connecting electricity illegally.
•The municipality has previously deployed security guards in areas with high cable theft incidents, but this initiative was discontinued, as one guard was shot dead.
•Short poles have been replaced with longer ones to prevent access to the overhead cables/connections.
Nxumalo invited the public to share their ideas with the city, including any advanced cable theft prevention methods that will help it win the fight against this crime.
Any suspicion of cable theft must be reported to the electricity’s call centre on 080 13 13 111 (also SMS 083 700 0819 or email custocare@elec.durban.gov.za), the cable theft hotline on 031 311 9611, SAPS on 10111 or Metro Police on 031 361 0000.
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