Cable theft is a major challenge that the City of Joburg faces daily. This not only leads to power outages, but also affects businesses and residences that suffer damages and high repair costs. According to Ward 87 councillor Amanda Forsythe, City Power is not doing enough to prevent cable theft and exposes itself to lawsuits for negligence.
“I report countless substations that have been vandalised and left unsecured, but most of the time my calls go unheeded, or City Power responds by hammering the doors shut with a wooden board or replacing a lock that is broken again in a matter of days,” said Forsythe. She added that most of the time, substations are vandalised by vagrants who are looking for a place to sleep, or by cable thieves.
She pointed out that the preferred cable to steal was the neutral cable, which when removed, causes a power surge that floods the system and damages appliances connected to it. The irony, said Forsythe, is that the neutral cable fetches about R50 on the illegal scrap market, but the damage it causes, amounts to hundreds of thousands of rands.
According to restaurateur and Melville resident Deon Fourie, his restaurant, Picobella Café, suffered electrical damage earlier this year, after a substation cable was stolen. Fourie, who employs 28 people, alleged that his restaurant’s computers, tills and fridges had to be fixed after a huge power surge hit his business equipment.
“I had to scramble around to try and save the food in the fridges. I tried to claim from the City, but as I run a small business, I didn’t have a lot of resources to chase after the City,” he said. He pointed out that the electricity meter which lies opposite his restaurant is loose and the cover can easily be removed, which may become become a safety hazard in the rain.
Forsythe added that the DA had put forward motions to the City to replace security guards employed by the City to guard only certain substations, with a remote-monitored security system that would ensure technology such as cameras, motion sensors and alarms are installed at all substations. However, this was rejected by the City.
“This decision is going to end up costing them dearly when the public start suing them for damages”, she said. “It’s a relatively easy problem to fix, but there is obviously no political will to do it,” she said.
Questions were sent to City Power spokesperson Sydney Mpahlele and comment is awaited.
