Residents and farmers are fighting cable theft in north

Residents in the north of Pretoria are rolling up their sleeves as they stand together to keep their communities electrified after encountering an enormous spate of cable theft recently.

Cable theft has been an ongoing problem that has now forced farmers and businesses to secure their properties against the continuous theft of cables.

Malanseuns Wholesale Nursery in Rosslyn was severely affected when its two transformers were stolen last week.

Residents used bulldozers to close the large ditches dug by cable thieves to access the cables.

They anchored the poles by using cement and painting them with tar to prevent thieves from sawing down the poles.

“The surrounding grass was also cut to improve visibility and they even established a patrol service to protect their infrastructure,” said FF Plus councillor and MMC for Health Rina Marx.

“Remember the Tshwane metro police cannot attend every case as they also have other responsibilities but I strongly appreciate steps taken by residents to ensure they protect themselves.”

Over the last week, a large number of cables and transformers were stolen and farmers at the plots had to go without power for days on end.

The farmers and the residents who make use of boreholes were unable to use their pumps to supply water.

According to rural CPF Sector 3 member Elna Bouillon, the criminals also steal transformers.

“Cable thieves are becoming more shameless.

“They are now even digging up and stealing cables,” said Bouillon.

She said the team has to be on the constant alert every time there is load-shedding.

“We have at most four cars on the road to patrol the area for any criminal activity.

“These criminals are lurking in the bushes and long grass and due to limited resources, we secure all jumper cables and the poles in the area by putting drums around the poles and adding cement on them.

“We had to cut the grass along the main power line because our patrollers can’t see beyond the grass,” said Bouillon.

Bouillon said the stealing of transformers harms the community as they struggle to feed their livestock during power outages.

“Currently, cable theft is higher than livestock theft and that is quite alarming.

“Community members need to realise the CPF is not only their ears and eyes but also partners in fighting crime,” said Bouillon.

Marx said Region 1 has the highest number of cable thefts.

“I live close to that area (Region 1) and we visited the community to see if there’s something we can do to mitigate the problem.

“It is so delightful to see community members come together and unite in the fight against such an epidemic,” said Marx.

ALSO READ: Planned maintenance to affect water supply in Moot

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram