According to Blairgowrie Community Association chairman Jed Kemery, between 16 and 21 January the theft of City Power’s electrical cable accounted for more than half of the reported crime in Blairgowrie.
“Most of the cable theft occurs in the residential node, but it affects homes and businesses alike, as many businesses operate from home,” said Kemery. Some outages take over 12 hours to restore. In certain cases City Power is slow to respond, or individual secondary trips remain undetected. “A definite increase in cable theft has been noticed since towards the end of 2013.”
Security company CSS Tactical is currently in negotiations with residents and the association to add Blairgowrie to their portfolio to combat cable theft. Steve Rosenthal from the security company said the type of criminals committing these acts camouflage themselves extremely well and commit the actual crime in less than a minute in most cases. “The addition of proactive patrol vehicles to Blairgowrie can only improve the situation, and once the security solution of a neighbourhood is enhanced, the criminals eventually prefer to conduct ‘business’ elsewhere,” explained Kemery.
Ward 102 councillor David Potter added that councillors serving Region B addressed the issue at their last Councillor Forum Meeting in January, at which City Power depot and City Power Risk Control staff were present. “The fact remains that cable theft is a national issue and it is unfortunate that the residents bear the brunt of this problem. City Power needs to urgently get intelligence on the ground to root out cable theft.
Potter stated it seems that little or no intelligence-gathering is taking place at present, which has resulted in the surge of cable theft. “Councillors will continue to champion this concern on behalf of residents,” concluded Potter.
Any cable-related suspicious activity and theft must be reported to City Power Risk Control on 011 490 7553.
Power onslaught by thieves
According to City Power, cable thieves were targeting residential areas, moving from one suburb to another.
Following a spate of incidents in the Kya Sands area in December, Blairgowrie has since been plagued by cable theft.
“Electricity and cable theft is a serious offence which compromises the stability of our network and affects service delivery to all our customers. In addition, it puts community lives at risk,” said Tharina Trott, City Power’s general manager for risk and control.
Hloni Motloung, media relations consultant at City Power, said there had been a trend in cable theft, whereby thieves would target one area and thereafter move to another.
As a result, the utility has embarked on educational campaigns to inform the public of the causes of affected services in their areas.
The campaigns also served to educate the public about the dangers and impacts of cable theft and to equip them with information to identify legitimate City Power workers, Motloung said.
According to Motloung, people who work for the City Power network would wear branded protective gear while on site and travel in vehicles that have the utility’s logo.
The utility was also installing pole-to-ground sleeves and aerial conductor cables across the city to prevent cable theft.
City Power decided to install aerial conductor cables made of aluminium, which is believed to have no value for thieves, rather than copper, to curb cable theft.
Residents are urged to report suspicious activity to City Power’s control room on 011 490 7911/ 7900/ 7553 or 080 000 3251.
