A shocking situation
The theft of a street light pole protective cover is said to be the reason an 18-year-old man was electrocuted to death in Sunninghill on 12 February. It is alleged the man bumped into exposed live wires on the pole at the corner of Naivasha and Rivonia roads.
City Power said, “Theft and vandalism of electrical infrastructure have become rampant over the last few years and have made it increasingly difficult for City Power to deal with the unforeseen consequences of illegal tampering due to the high number of such incidents.”
It is no secret that City Power, Eskom, Telkom and the City of Joburg have issues of theft on their hands. Scrap metal seems to be in high demand and, it would seem, authorities simply cannot keep up with the rate at which cables, protective street light covers, manholes etc are stolen.
While it is clear that there is a bigger problem that needs to be addressed, it seems that government is not taking the matter very seriously. Why is the government not holding scrap metal dealers accountable? And why are solutions not being urgently found and acted upon?
Speaking about the street light protective cover issue, councillor Anette Deppe said, “We have asked questions in [city] council before around this [exposed live wires] and responses included that new covers [should be] made of plastic in order to avoid theft.”
So, if plastic covers are a viable solution, why are they not urgently being installed across the city? Driving around Joburg, it is unusual to see a street light pole with a cover on it. Quite frankly, it is surprising that more electrocutions have not occurred.
The City of Joburg really needs to start acting on this by finding solutions and implementing them. The fact that one person has died because solutions could not be found and acted upon in a timeous manner is simply not good enough.
More needs to be done and the relevant departments need to be held accountable.
