Infrastructure remains under attack

MMC for the Environment and Infrastructure Service Department (EISD), Councillor Michael Sun has made a call for communities to play a more active role in 2023 as infrastructure critical to providing basic services to the people of Johannesburg remains under siege from vandals and thieves.

According to City Power, cable theft continued at alarmingly high levels during the festive season especially following incidents of flooding at the beginning of December 2022.

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The power utility continues to battle rampant cable theft in Roodepoort with 17 instances of cable theft occurring in the last week alone.

In 2022 alone, over 200 Jojo tanks provided by Johannesburg Water to communities to supply areas without formal services were either stolen or vandalised.

“This situation breaks my heart; cable theft and infrastructure vandalism are killing service delivery across the country.

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“We need communities to work with us this year to ensure we put an immediate stop to this plaque,” said Sun.

Last year, EISD launched an infrastructure protection initiative to work alongside neighbourhood watches and other groups taking it upon themselves to help safeguard City Power’s electrical grid.

While this initiative had borne fruit, cable theft remains rampant.

“Although our effort with City Power has helped to put 147 cable thieves behind bars in just the last 6 months of 2022 – almost double the amount compared to the previous 12-month period, cable theft is still far too high with instances occurring on a daily basis,” MMC Sun said.

According to Sun, EISD is going to redouble their efforts and ensure City Power works in tandem with the law enforcement agencies and shoulder to shoulder with communities to extinguish the horrendous crime against lives, livelihoods and national stability.

City Power is currently seized with crafting an emergency plan to deal with cable theft immediately which will include adding to its already over R100m security budget among others.

Joburg Water is also redrafting its approach to the deployment of water tankers.

“The entity deploys or install Jojo tanks in communities as a last resort or alternative solution when conventional tap water cannot be supplied.

However, this cannot be reliably continued at the rate these units are disappearing in communities.

“It is very seldom that information about incidents of cable thieves and vandals or Jojo tanks disappearing or being damaged are being shared by the communities in which they occur,” said Sun.

Sun said that he is appealing to all residents to not sit back and watch valuable infrastructure be stolen or vandalised only to enrich the criminals.

“If you see or hear something: report it. Information can be supplied anonymously too, your city needs your help,” said Sun.

To report cable theft to City Power use any of these 24-hour hotlines: 011 490 7900, 011 490 7911, 011 490 7553, or, alternatively, WhatsApp 083 579 4497.

To report vandalism or theft of Joburg Water infrastructure use this anonymous line: 080 000 2587.