Pretoria - Residents of Soshanguve Extension 3 are so fed up with electricity cable thieves that they are now using metal sheets to cover the poles, making it hard for thieves to get their “loot”.
Electricity cables in the area are attached to the poles and thus easily reachable by the thieves. Tired of losing cables and being in the dark every so often while waiting for them to be replaced, residents have taken metal and covered the cables.
According to them, it costs time and money to replace a cable because they must first go to Rosslyn Police Station to write an affidavit, and then take it to the City of Tshwane.
Resident Duduzile Ngozo said: “We are sick and tired of these criminals because they are relentless.
“They will make you think they are gone and will not return, but then they strike again.
“We decided to cover the cables; we want it to be hard for the thieves to reach them. If they do, we will hear the noise when they remove the covers. We know we have not made them theft-proof, but at least they have to work harder for the cables. People have been doing this since May after many cables were stolen.”
Leonard Paya suggested the City of Tshwane should have just installed overhead lines instead of cables that run down the pole, which were easier to steal.
MMC for Utility Services and Regional Operations Daryl Johnston said stressing too much about how the cable line was moving would not necessarily solve the problem.
He said there was a syndicate in the cable businesses and it was making money by using the “smaller fish” to steal cables.
Johnston said that what the residents did was commendable and inspiring because to deal with cable theft, the active involvement of the community was critical to assist the City of Tshwane to protect its infrastructure.
He said the City had budgeted R10 million towards fighting cable theft and the vandalism of infrastructure because going back to replace and repair infrastructure was expensive.
“Cable theft is a massive problem that is not only limited to Pretoria, but the rest of the country. We are dealing with it here in Pretoria.
“It is a problem for multiple reasons. Funds have to be repurposed elsewhere to replace cables. Residents are inconvenienced and businesses are negatively affected. The City also suffers revenue loss because if the cable is stolen then the people are not paying the City.”
Johnston said he was happy that the national government was finally coming on board.
He referred to Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel’s address to Parliament’s portfolio committee on trade and Industry in which he spoke of a possible ban in cash sales of scrap metal, subject to conditions.
Pretoria News