Power is not the problem, cable theft and vandalism is…
RUIMSIG – Vandalism and cable theft are the leading causes of power outages in Ruimsig.
The leading causes of power outages in Ruimsig are cable theft, illegal connections and damage caused by private contractors.
This was confirmed by City Power’s regional manager Sipho Gamede, who assured residents that the City had enough capacity to supply the area.
On 31 January, Gamede addressed concerned Ward 97 residents who have been plagued by inaccurate billings and power outages in the past few weeks.
“The area feeds from the Christiaan de Wet Road substation near Clearwater Mall. Sometime last year we had numerous outages caused by the network. I spent some time addressing the issue in this area and found that most of the outages were due to cable theft and vandalism,” said Gamede.
He added that the City had exhausted its budget on repairing and securing the cables, and hiring private security companies to monitor hotspots.
Gamede also held private companies that were installing fibre around the city accountable for damaging municipal property. “Last year there were companies which were excavating to install fibre [and] they damaged a lot of cables,” he said, adding that the City managed to engage with them and provided a plan showing where the cables ran.
City Power’s area manager for security operations, Buks Badenhorst made it clear that ‘City Power is not an enforcement agency but a supplier of electricity’. However, he confirmed that there was a security company in place to deal with cable theft. He indicated that the City was involved in crime-busting operations to resolve the problem. He also pleaded with the community to be their eyes and ears on the ground.
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