HRA secures notorious Johan Road mini-sub

The Honeydew Residents Association (HRA) has, in a bid to stop recurring theft at the mini-substation (MSS) in Johan Road, taken it upon themselves to secure the MSS.

“This particular MSS has been broken into and vandalised numerous times resulting in residents having to get along without electricity for days on end,” says HRA chair, Izak van Rooyen.

“Some of these people run businesses from their homes and most have boreholes. In addition to power outages negatively affecting their ability to earn an income, when they don’t have electricity, they also do not have water.”

Workers arrived at the notorious MSS on Saturday morning, March 9 and welded a metal bar across the doors.

“The bar across the doors is secured by locks that are particularly tough to break,” says Van Rooyen. “Hopefully this is enough to deter thieves and vandals.”

The local residents associations (RAs) have, since the beginning of the year, managed to secure a large number of MSS units throughout the Northside in a bid to curb rampant cable theft.

“We have all the necessary approvals from CP in place,” says Van Rooyen. “Our biggest obstacle currently is buy-in from the community. It is a pity that we as a community have to take these matters into our own hands, but the reality is, if we don’t, no one will.”

Van Rooyen has called on Northside communities to become involved with their local RAs and to contribute to their various projects.

“Whether we like it or not, doing it ourselves is the only way it is going to get done.”