POLOKWANE – Residents in several areas of the city and surrounds have to bear the brunt of additional electricity woes as load-shedding is exacerbated by cable theft which occurs during these time slots.
In addition, street lights are repaired on a particular day, just for thieves to pounce on the cables during load-shedding the next day.
Smallholdings areas including Tweefontein, Soetdorings, Doornbult, Kareebosch and Dalmada are particular hotspots.
Residents here say besides the inconvenience of not having electricity, the situation also provides the ideal opportunity for criminals to conduct their business.
DA caucus leader, Jacques Joubert, says they recently wrote to Mayor John Mpe with the request for an energy indaba to be held in the search for answers.
“I followed up with the mayor and was told that his office would be in contact with us.”
The proposed urgent indaba would aim to find long-lasting or permanent strategies to prevent cable theft, and drastically reduce the economic cost to residents, businesses, the municipality and Eskom.
Residents and businesses cannot afford to keep up with repairs without adequately addressing security issues, Joubert said, adding that employees from Eskom, the municipality, the police as well as members of the Community Policing Forum, risk their lives daily.
Party councillor Roelof Lourens said they also have been actively reporting faulty streetlights in Ladanna, some of which have not been repaired for two years. He blames the municipality’s electricity services department for the lack of a “workable maintenance system”.
“Is there an effective system of control with the maintenance of street lights and replacement of stolen cables? Are there job cards with names and time showing who worked at specific block for the sake of a database, including how long the same issue occurs at the same spot?” he asked.
Municipal spokesperson, Thipa Selala said the municipality was aware of the cable theft and is contemplating to enlarge its security division to accommodate electricity safety in the city.
“The municipality is in the process of enlarging its security division, however, it can never be enlarged to an extent where it will become so expensive that the taxpayer cannot afford it.”
He added that they are also considering new technology, the details of which he said could not be published in the media as this would compromise the effort against the information that thieves would have at their disposal.
