“Cable theft is a major problem in the City of Johannesburg that leads not only to power outages but also to damages [to electrical appliances] suffered by residents and businesses,” said Forsythe, who strongly feels that City Power is not doing enough to prevent this theft and may be exposing themselves to lawsuits for negligence.
“I report countless substations that have been vandalised and left unsecured, but most of the time my calls go unheeded, or City Power responds by hammering the doors of the substations shut with a wooden board,” she continued.
“Or they simply replace the lock that is then broken again in a matter of days.”
In the majority of cases where substations are vandalised, it is done by vagrants looking for a place to sleep or by cable thieves.
“The favourite cable to steal is the ‘neutral cable’ which, when removed, causes a power surge that floods the system and damages appliances connected to it,” Forsythe added.
“The irony is that this cable fetches about R50 on the illegal scrap market, but the surge damage it causes can amount to hundreds of thousands of rands.”
Forsythe added that motions had been put forward to the City council to replace security guards employed by the City to guard certain strategic substations with a remotely monitored security system that would ensure technology such as cameras, motion sensors and alarms were installed in all substations, but this was rejected.
“This decision is going to end up costing them dearly when the public starts suing them for damages,” she concluded.
“It’s a relatively easy problem to fix, but there is obviously no political will to do it.”
City Power was approached for comment on more than one occasion by the Rosebank Killarney Gazette regarding the matter but failed to respond by the time of going to press.
Details: www.citypower.co.za
