Following reports of vandalism to mini substations leaving areas without electricity for long hours, residents of Titaan Street in Wilro Park collaborated to ensure the security of their substation by fencing it off in a bid to keep criminal elements at bay.
According to resident Ampie Greef, mini substation vandalism in Roodepoort has escalated, with daily reports on security groups. A culprit was recently arrested and released after no consequences, despite being released from a previous incident.
“My neighbours and I regularly check in with each other in our street and maintain a street WhatsApp group to stay informed about our area, so we have a general idea of what is going on here, hence we initiated this idea,” he said.
Households agreed to contribute R380 towards the security project, resulting in R7 600 for upgrades including door brackets, palisade fencing, and locks. Sensors for mini sub doors were installed, and signage will indicate who City Power technicians need to contact for access keys.
With City Power running low on spares and reports stating they have massive backlogs that can often take more than 10 days to restore electricity supply, residents said they had to act and do their part to avoid becoming a statistic.
“I applied with City Power’s Francis Ngubeni, confirmed project requirements, and set installation dates. I also facilitated how funds should be managed with funding from households, made payments, and secured the area with locks. I’ve also organised with Absolut Security and dropped off the keys,” Werner Enslin, another resident, said.
Residents were asked to provide security ideas and possible contractors so that cost estimation could be gathered.
Once all the necessary signatures and approvals were received from City Power, Ngubeni visited the site to explain the roles and responsibilities residents have in securing and maintaining the area around the mini substation.
“We then agreed on a contractor, took the total cost of the project, and divided it by the total number of houses on our street,” added Enslin.
The success of this project is the direct result of the residents of the street contributing and standing together in agreement to act on a problem that so many communities are facing.
Residents should follow proper procedures for City Power approval and hire a qualified contractor for security measures in mini substations, as they are hazardous areas.
According to Clr Florence Roberts, over the last year, Roodepoort and particularly Roodekraans, Wilro Park and Helderkruin have been under siege with criminal activity and vandalism of the mini substations, pillar boxes and cable/ fuses theft. City Power cites that about three mini substations are vandalised each day across Roodepoort and a countless number of pillar boxes. City Power has deployed a Special RISK unit to deal with this hotspot.
“We are very thankful to Eugene and JJ from EDK Electrical & Construction for the great job they did in installing all the security measures to our mini substation. Thanks also to councillor Roberts for sending out regular notifications to residents urging them to secure their substations and for including the steps to follow the process,” a joint response from residents cited.
